The Virtual Man (2005)
by SteampunkSherlock
Summary: In a secret government research lab, a team of scientists have created a machine capable of teleporting matter into and out of a computer system. Dr. Kevin Sawyer, the leader of the project, volunteers to become the first cybernaut and is charged with the mission of tracking down and destroying the supervirus known as Daemon.
1. INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

In a secret government research lab, a team of scientists have created a machine capable of teleporting matter into and out of a computer system. Dr. Kevin Sawyer, the leader of the project, volunteers to become the first cybernaut and is charged with the mission of tracking down and destroying the supervirus known as Daemon.

Arriving in Mainframe, Sawyer discovers that an amazing parallel universe has evolved within the Internet. Now, the Mainframe team is locked in a deadly struggle with their oldest enemy, Megabyte, with Kevin caught in the middle. Can the team overcome their personal demons in the aftermath of Megabyte's deception, and learn to trust Sawyer, or will Megabyte finally succeed in his dream of conquering the Supercomputer and dominate the entire Net?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own _ReBoot_. This story is just for fun, and it is not intended to infringe on the copyrights of Mainframe Entertainment.

Author's Note:

This is the complete ORIGINAL version of The Virtual Man fanfic, originally published on this site in 2005. It's nowhere near as polished as my newer material, but its popularity has endured. I will post The Virtual Man v2.0 after I finish uploading all the following stories.


	2. CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1: Green Hill

The sun cast its early morning rays across the sky, igniting the atmosphere with a fire orange that swept across the landscape. A soft mist was still clinging to the grass-covered hills. A deer gracefully leapt through the haze on its way back into the surrounding forest. The area was serene with almost no trace of civilization. The only thing out of place was the black asphalt road that cut through the slice of West Virginia countryside. Another thing seemed alien in this world as well: the navy Volvo that was cruising down the road.

The driver looked at his watch with an impatient glance. It was fifteen minutes till seven. He had to be at the lab by at least ten till since the machine took roughly fifteen minutes to prep, and he had been told over the phone that the National Security Council would be there at seven-thirty. His foot increased its pressure on the accelerator peddle and the car sped up. Normally he wasn't so nervous, but the NSC's visit was unscheduled and unexpected. It was not like the heads of the United States government to make a trip like this from Washington at the drop of a hat.

A signpost came into view up ahead. There was no need for him to read it; he passed it every day. It had the symbol of the Department of Defense painted on it with the words NOW ENTERING RESTRICTED AREA in bold red letters. The restricted area in question covered an area of fifty square miles on the surface and over seventeen thousand cubic feet underneath on average. All was owned and operated by DARPA and under the immediate control of the military.

A minute later the car came to a halt at the gate of an electrified chain-linked fence which ran around the entire perimeter. There was another sign on the gate that read:

NOW ENTERING DARPA GREEN HILL RESEARCH COMPLEX.  
PLEASE BE READY FOR SECURITY CHECK-IN.

A Marine dressed in camouflage stepped out of a security hut to the left and approached the vehicle. He had an M-16 slung over his shoulder and a device that resembled a radar gun in his right hand. The driver rolled down the window and allowed the guard to approach.

"Good morning, Dr. Sawyer," said the guard solemnly as he took his ID badge and ran it through a magnetic scanner on the gun.

"Good morning, Corporal," replied Dr. Sawyer.

He stuck his head out slightly from the car, and the guard pressed the cupped end of the retina reader gun to the driver's right eye. The corporal pressed a trigger and the gun transmitted a laser scan of the driver's eye to the security computer terminal in the hut. After it was checked and cleared, the gate automatically slid to the side, and the guard handed him back his badge.

Dr. Sawyer rolled up his window and sped on through. A few minutes later the car reached the tunnel entrance, a slanted hole illuminated by blue fluorescent lights which led half a mile down into the earth. He checked his watch again as he came out into the vast underground parking garage. It was five minutes till seven. Hurriedly, he found his parking spot and parked his car.

Dr. Kevin Sawyer walked hastily toward the garage's personnel elevator. He was a young man, twenty-nine, six feet tall with brown hair and blue eyes. He slid his ID into the scanner port at the elevator and waited for the lift to open. Hopefully the others were already prepping the machine for an insertion. If the NSC wanted to see it in action, they would have to run a test procedure first.

"Kevin!" called a voice from behind. Kevin turned and saw Tom Keller, the assistant director to Kevin's project, coming hastily towards him. "I was hoping to catch you up here. The team's already getting the system warmed up for a test run."

"Good," said Kevin. The doors opened and the two scientists stepped inside. Kevin pressed the button for sub-level twenty. The doors closed, and they felt the lift begin its long descent. "What's the status of the computer core?" Kevin asked.

"Stable. We had some quantum interference in the particle matrix last night, but we corrected the problem."

Tom was a little shorter than Kevin. He had coppery red hair and wore a goatee. He had on a dark red dress shirt and navy pants, and he had his steel-rimmed glasses on the tip of his nose. He was also Kevin's closest friend. Where Tom looked professional, Kevin looked non-conventional. He wore wrinkled khakis, an unstuffed orange button-down shirt, and tennis shoes. His brown hair hadn't really been combed either.

"This is what you get when you're called up at six in the morning," Kevin grumbled, noticing the observing stare from Tom.

"I can tell," Tom replied, half grinning. "I just don't get it, though. Why is the National Security Council coming all the way out here?"

"I've been thinking about that ever since I left home this morning, but your guess is as good as mine, Tom."

Normally Kevin wasn't one to worry; however, he couldn't help it this time. The NSC had announced that they were making an unscheduled visit of the experiment. Kevin tried to think of why this sudden breach in protocol had occurred.

"After four years of being practically ignored, they jump up and come running down here," Kevin said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Could it mean that they're going to terminate the project?" Tom asked.

"There's no reason for them to want to," Kevin said. "The progress we've made over the last year alone has been phenomenal."

It was true. Where the project had started as a rudimentary experiment four years earlier, it was now the singular most important undertaking since the Manhattan Project. How could they even think of stopping it?

"If they're not coming to shut us down," asked Tom, "what are they coming for?"

"I don't know. But anything that can make the most powerful figureheads in Washington come all the way out here can't be good."

The elevator came to a halt, the doors opened, and Kevin and Tom stepped into the hallway.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had been founded in the 1950s as the prime developer of technology for the United States military. Its research ranged everywhere from robotics to theoretical physics. For the last half century it had produced some of the most amazing technology ever seen. Kevin's project dealt with quantum computer science, a field of research DARPA had made one of its peak undertakings. To anyone outside the agency, Kevin's work would look like complete science-fiction, but it was quickly becoming a reality, and it promised to revolutionize the way people worked with computers in the near future.

Kevin and Tom made their way through the mazelike corridors of the underground complex. The Green Hill facility had been built like a missile silo. The halls were circular tunnels of concrete supported by steel girders. The whole place could withstand a full-scale nuclear attack and not be jostled in the slightest.

The two scientists rounded another corner and came to the metal door of the control room. Kevin slid his ID badge across the magnetic reader to the right of him, and the door unlocked. The control room was fifteen feet long and eight feet high with two rows of tables with computer terminals set facing a large horizontal window that allowed observation into the adjoining room. The view was obscured by a metal shutter that ran the entire length of the window. There were three people in the room: Vivian Thompson, Sophie Grant, and Kellous Scott. Kevin knew them all well.

Vivian was the oldest member of the team, fifty-five, and a theoretical physicist. She had slightly gray hair and walked with a cane due to a car crash that resulted in her left leg being amputated. She had an artificial limb but hid it well. She supervised the operation of the main equipment. Kellous was thirty-three and a graduate of Johns-Hopkins. Short and slightly pudgy, he was a native of Hawaii and had dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. Kellous served as the project's medical analyst. Sophie was English by birth. She had fair skin, brown eyes, and long brown hair which she wore in a ponytail. Her specialty was computer programming.

When Kevin closed the door behind him and heard the mechanical security lock secure the door he noticed how anxious his colleagues looked.

"News travels fast," said Kevin.

"In this place, that's an understatement," said Kellous Scott, the team's medical analyst.

"I take it you've all heard, then?" They nodded. "So have I."

"Then you know we're all going to be out of a job soon," Vivian said as Kevin sat down in the chair next to her.

"Don't be so negative," he said with a chipper tone. "We're not jobless yet."

"Why are you so calm?" asked Sophie.

"I'm not," replied Sawyer, "but I know there's more going on with this than what we've been led to believe."

"You know something we don't?" inquired Kellous.

"We think the Council's here for something else besides cancellation," explained Tom.

"What else could they be here for?" asked Vivian. "It's not like them to drop in unannounced like this."

"We'll find out in about twenty minutes," said Kevin. "Is the machine ready?"

"They're prepping it right now," Vivian replied.

"Let's see it," said Tom. "We want to put the machine through a test before the Council arrives."

With the push of a button, Vivian opened the steel shutter of the control room window. It slid upward, allowing everyone in the room to see the technicians working. Inside the adjoining room was the culmination of four years of hard work. They were two cubical chambers ten feet in diameter and ten feet in height, made of Plexiglas and steel. Both had four large electrodes sticking out from the top and a heavy central electrical cable that ran from the ceiling into the middle of the electrodes. Each chamber had a double-sealed airlock on the side allowing the atmosphere within to be evacuated. Inside the machines were four two-foot-long lasers suspended from the roof angled downward toward the center of the floor.

Inside a special alcove in the far right wall was a large cylinder that looked like a gas tank turned on its end. This was the quantum computer core. With near infinite memory and processing capacity, it was the most powerful computer ever created. It actually took up more space than it appeared to. Built from an array of particle accelerators, detectors, and lasers, it occupied almost half of the entire level below the lab. What was in the alcove was simply an access terminal for the technicians. Alone it could do the work of trillions of supercomputers.

The whole apparatus was surrounded by worktables with computer terminals on them displaying readouts on the devices. A technician was holding a rabbit in his hands while another filled a hypodermic syringe with a yellow liquid. It was a sedative that would decrease the heartbeat and respiration of the rabbit while it was in the reduced atmosphere of the chamber. Once the sedative was administered, the technician placed a metallic collar around the rabbit's neck and snapped it on.

Kevin spoke into the microphone which was connected to the intercom inside the room. "Don, what's your status?"

"Bugs is ready for quantum digitization, Doctor. We've set the retrieval module for fifteen seconds," replied the technician through his microphone.

"Okay, put him inside," Kevin said.

The technician pressed the 'open' button on the airlock of the leftmost chamber, and the outer access gate separated like an elevator door. The inner door opened in the same manner, and he placed the rabbit in the center of the platform. After exiting the device he sealed the airlock and gave a thumbs-up to the control room.

"All personnel clear the lab," Tom said into the intercom.

"Standby for quantum digitization in two minutes."

The technicians began moving out of the room while the platform inside the chamber came to life. It glowed orange beneath the rabbit. A three-dimensional model of the animal was displayed on the control room's computer screens.

"Heartbeat and respiration are fifteen percent below normal," said Kellous, examining the rabbit's vital signs. "Beginning atmospheric evacuation."

He pressed a button on his control station, and the sound of air was heard being pumped out of the inside of the machine. After a few seconds a display box indicated the maximum amount of air had been pumped out.

"What's the status of the computer?" asked Tom.

"Scans indicate it's functioning normally. Zero programming errors, and no system instabilities," reported Sophie. "It's ready to receive data transfer."

"Begin countdown sequence at thirty seconds," said Kevin.

Kellous twisted a knob on his control board, and the TV screens on the wall displayed a counter counting down from thirty seconds.

"Power is at sixty percent," said Vivian.

They heard the sounds of electrical buildup in the chamber. The computer core began humming as it prepared to receive the new data from the download.

"All stations stand by," said Kevin. "Atomic deconstruction in twenty seconds."

"Power is at seventy percent," Vivian said. The digital indicator showing the power input into the machine rose steadily. "Ninety percent..." Her console then started beeping. "Max power reached."

"Fire," ordered Dr. Sawyer.

Vivian pressed a red button on her control board, and four narrow beams of green laser light converged on the rabbit. For a moment they all stared in wonder as they always did when this happened. The computer image of the rabbit began to fade back into a wire-frame diagram as it was simultaneously reconstructed on another screen, showing the transfer of matter from the physical world into the computer core.

The rabbit's body was fading away from top to bottom with the movement of the lasers, leaving behind a transparent glasslike figure in its place. Once all the physical detail had vanished the transparent remnant of the animal began to degrade as if it were being burned like a piece of paper. A wave of green flame seemed to consume it from the outside in, erasing the final material evidence of the test subject. Then the process was complete and the rabbit was gone.

"Quantum digitization complete," said Vivian.

"Did it make it?" asked Tom.

"Kellous?" asked Kevin.

Scott was busy typing on his control terminal. "I'm reading a heartbeat," he said after a few moments. "Sensors indicate a successful material download into the computer."

"Good, now let's bring him back," said Kevin. "Start retrieval procedures."

Within moments the control room was in motion with activity again. Kellous began to fill the other chamber with the appropriate amount of hydrogen gas for reconstruction while the countdown was reset.

"I've locked onto the retrieval module's signal," called out Sophie.

"The retrieval chamber has been filled with mass-proportionate hydrogen," Kellous reported.

"Engage countdown," said Tom.

The counter was set at fifteen seconds and commenced counting down.

"Extraction in fifteen seconds," Vivian announced. Any moment the rabbit would reappear in the same manner it had been sent off.

Six... five... four... three... two... one.

"Retrieve," ordered Kevin.

The lasers fired, and the transparent figure reappeared. It began to regain the physical detail that had been removed from it the first time. When it was fully rematerialized, the green laser beams cut off and the rabbit sat as if it had never left. The only difference was that it had moved from one chamber to the other.

"Restore normal atmosphere, quick," said Kevin.

The chamber began to be equalized in pressure as the technicians flooded back into the digitization room with scanning instruments and other devices to collect data on the subject's recent journey. The head technician opened the airlock and retrieved the rabbit. The furry creature perked its ears and squiggled its nose as if nothing had happened.

"He's alive and well," said Don through the microphone as he removed the metallic collar.

Kevin said to Tom with a satisfied grin, "That makes seven complete digitization operations in a row."

A phone rang on the other side of the control room, and Kevin walked over to answer it.

"Dr. Sawyer," said a voice, "the members of the Council are here. They're waiting in the conference room."

"Thank you, Sergeant, we'll be right up," said Kevin. He turned to Tom. "They're here."

"Now maybe we can get some answers," said Tom.

* * *

They arrived at the meeting room and were shown inside by an aide to the Council. The members of the Council were already there. He recognized Secretary of State Frank Miller immediately, as well the Director of the CIA, James Maxwell, and the Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kelly Cleaver. Also attending was the NSC's chief staff officer Hal Sinclair and the head of the Department of Defense, General Carl Clark. At 6'4" and burly he was the most easily recognizable with his regulation hairstyle and trimmed mustache. The room had a long meeting table with several swivel chairs and a flat-screen plasma TV on the far wall.

"Dr. Sawyer, Dr. Keller, please have a seat, gentlemen," said the General.

They sat down in the comfortable leather chairs and looked around at the questioning glances of the four men and one woman.

"Do you know why we are here, Dr. Sawyer?" asked Secretary Miller, removing his glasses and laying them on the manila folder in front of him. Miller was slim-faced and had a hawk-like appearance. His dull gray eyes were narrow and intimidating.

"We were told it was an unscheduled inspection of the experiment," said Kevin, playing along with the Council's sham of cloak and dagger.

"Not exactly, Doctor. That was just an excuse for our real reason for coming here. We've become very interested in the work you're doing here," said Director Maxwell, a tall ex-Marine with blonde hair and a military cut.

"Obviously," said Kevin. "It's not every day we get visits from people other than the usual DARPA inspectors."

"Our visit here is of the utmost importance, Doctor," said Kelly Cleaver. She was a slender blonde with piercing blue eyes that seemed to be analyzing every detail of Kevin's demeanor. He wasn't sure whether to be flattered or insulted by her probing gaze. "The only reason the President and Vice-President are absent is that certain affairs of state kept them from participating. We're here on their behalf."

Kevin felt a pit form in his stomach. He never knew word of their work had reached the White House. As coolly as he could, Kevin brushed off his growing uncertainty and leaned back in his chair.

"Then I take it you're not here to terminate our work," Tom said.

"Quite the opposite, Dr. Keller," said Hal Sinclair, a short man in his thirties with thinning brown hair and a noticeable mole on his cheek. "We want to know if you're ready to take it to the next stage."

"Next stage?" asked Kevin, his astonishment equal to that of Tom's. "We've barely started the live animal test phase. Human trials are still a year away at least."

The members of the Council all looked unsettled at that last statement, almost as if they were disappointed. Kevin decided it was time to cut the crap and get right to the point.

"General Clark, I don't like being led around by my nose. Why don't you cut to the chase and tell us why you're all here?"

"All in good time, Doctor," said General Clark. "First of all, how much do you know about the Daemon virus?"

"Daemon?" asked Kevin. The question caught him completely off guard. The whole world knew about Daemon. "I can't think of anyone who doesn't know about it. The computer virus made headlines in all the papers. It was all over the news."

"Just for the sake of accuracy, tell us what you know," requested Cleaver.

It took him a moment to recall the specific details, but it wasn't difficult. Unlike the Council's purpose for being at the Green Hill facility, Daemon was not a state secret.

"Well, Daemon was the first supervirus of its kind. It was designed to corrupt the initialization processes carried out by daemon programs in the background of certain Unix-like operating systems. It had the capacity to infect the entire Internet and crash every computer on it. Had it not been for the FBI Cybercrime Division, it would have eventually wrecked every global communication network on the planet."

"And that's all that you know?" asked Sinclair.

"Basically, yes."

"I'm confused," said Tom. "Why are we talking about Daemon? The FBI sent a mass mailing antivirus program over the Net and killed it, right?" There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. "Didn't they?"

The Council members were silent for a few more seconds and looked at one another.

"You've got to be kidding," said Kevin.

"Gentlemen, what we're about to reveal is the most volatile information we hold. Everything that is said in this conference is classified. It must not be spoken to anyone else, understood?" said General Clark. The scientists nodded and prepared for an explanation. "What was said in the media was a hoax, a cover for the truth. The Daemon virus wasn't stopped by the FBI."

"Then what stopped it?" asked Kevin.

"Actually, we don't know," said Director Maxwell. "The truth has been kept from the public all over the world for fear of mass panic. But the virus originated from the Pentagon supercomputer."

"What?" Kevin asked, astounded.

"A month ago someone managed to hack into the Pentagon computer system and implant Daemon before we even knew there had been a breach. Within twenty-four hours it had gained total control over the Pentagon, and within seventy-two hours it had branched out and infected the Kremlin in Russia, the Ministry of Defense in Great Britain, as well as every other chief military installation in the world. The rest of the Internet followed after that within the next week," explained Clark.

"Didn't you try to stop it?" asked Tom.

"We tried to contain it within the supercomputer until we could purge the system, but nothing worked. It seemed able to adapt itself to any kind of defense we put up," said Maxwell. "It was unlike anything our specialists had ever seen before."

"Now I understand the secrecy. You're still trying to keep this under wraps," said Kevin.

"With any luck, the public will never know how close we came to technological Armageddon. If the virus hadn't disappeared when it did, the human race would have been sent back into the Stone Age," said Cleaver.

"What do you mean 'disappeared?'" asked Kevin.

"Daemon pulled a Houdini," said Miller. "It vanished without a trace along with its infection. We tried to track it, but it was as if it never existed. It literally ceased to exist all of a sudden."

"You mean it just vanished, like that?" asked Tom. "How can a supervirus that's spread over the whole net just disappear instantly?"

"We detected some sort of counteracting program over the networks just before the virus vanished. We assume it was what stopped Daemon," explained Clark. "But as of yet we have been unable to ascertain what it was, but we were able to track its origin."

"So the virus was stopped, as in, not deleted," said Kevin, the obvious coming into full focus. "So that's why you're really here. You want to send someone into the net to find out what really happened."

"You must understand, Doctor, Daemon could still be out there. More importantly, its creator is still out there. They could be waiting to reintroduce the virus as we speak. We need to know everything about Daemon and what happened to it if it ever resurfaces, and we can't do that from out here," said Sinclair.

"The President has spoken with the United Nations on this," said Cleaver. "They agree that direct action must be taken to ensure the stability of international relations against another full-scale attack on the Internet."

"Naturally, he left out the part about Daemon coming from the Pentagon," said Kevin with a hint of cynicism in his voice.

"Naturally," said Cleaver, rising to his sarcasm.

"But we've already told you we're over a year away from the first human test run," said Tom.

"You've proven that organic life can be made to enter cyberspace," said Maxwell.

"Yes, but only within the virtual environment we created with our own computer core," said Kevin. "Sending someone into the Internet would be dangerous."

"I'm curious," said Sinclair, "how exactly does it work? How can you send a living person into virtual reality?"

"Matter and energy are interchangeable," Kevin said. "Burn a piece of paper, you turn wood pulp into heat. The hard part is turning the heat energy back into a piece of paper. Normally you can't do that. The laws of thermodynamics say mass-energy conversion goes one way only, but quantum physics says something different."

"Sounds like _Star Trek_ ," Maxwell said.

"It's a little more complicated," said Kevin. "First, we use lasers to scan a subject's molecular structure. Because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle we can only scan out so much information before the physical state of the subject becomes too unstable. Therefore you can only scan out half the information needed to reconstruct the object you're digitizing. In order to complete the process we use a quantum property of matter called entanglement."

"What's entanglement?" asked General Clark.

"Entanglement is the state of matter in which two particles that are created simultaneously share the same physical state," explained Tom. "Entangled particles are basically twins, exact duplicates in every way, and as such they act as if they are one entity. Whatever happens to one particle instantly affects the other no matter what the distance between them is."

"In other words," Sawyer went on, "the part of the information needed to digitize an object that cannot be scanned conventionally will be conveyed through entanglement, since both pieces of information share a common physical state," Kevin said further. "The result is the reconstitution of the subject within cyberspace as a computer program instead of a physical being."

"And you've actually done this?" asked Cleaver.

"On small animals, yes," said Kevin. "But it's never been done on a human before."

"Well, it's about to get tested," said General Clark, rising out of his seat. "We'll have our man in here within the hour."

"General, I urge you to reconsider," said Kevin, getting up to meet the General. "That machine has never been properly tested for this sort of thing. I can't let you do this."

"We were hoping you would cooperate, Dr. Sawyer," said Cleaver.

"Cooperate? I'm sorry, I can't do that. It's a suicide mission."

"Then what would you have us do, Doctor?" asked Clark. "We can't just sit around waiting for Daemon to show up again. And if it does still exist, we might not be so lucky the next time it resurfaces."

Kevin took a deep breath. "I'll cooperate on one condition," he said. "Send me."

The Council looked unmoved by his request. Tom, on the other hand, looked at Kevin like he had lost his grip on reality.

"Are you serious?" asked Sinclair.

"This isn't some battlefield like Vietnam or the Persian Gulf where you can just send in troops with guns and tanks. This is cyberspace, a whole new plane. I know more about this machine and the risks than anyone else under your command. I know computers like no one else. You won't find anyone more capable than me."

The Council members looked at each other for a moment. "Gentlemen, would you excuse us for a moment while we discuss this?"

Kevin and Tom both got out of their chairs and walked out the conference room door.

"Well, it worked," said Sinclair. "We got him to volunteer."

"I'm still not convinced this is the best course of action," Miller said, opening up the manila folder again. "Why send Sawyer?"

"You've got his file there," said Sinclair. "He's more than qualified."

"In the technical aspects, yes. But he's a scientist, not an operative."

"That's the point," Clark said, turning to his associate. "Sawyer had it right when he said cyberspace wasn't like a battlefield we're used to fighting on. The War on Terror is escalating to the point where the battles are going to be fought with computers instead of guns or ICBMs. Sawyer is the best in his field. He's the ideal soldier for this battlefield."

"It might have been easier to just ask him," said Cleaver. "He probably would have said yes anyway."

"Possibly," said General Clark. "But at least this way if something does go wrong the blame won't fall on us. He opted to go himself with no direct orders from us."

"All this sounds like complete malarkey to me," Maxwell said, not bothering to hide his criticism. "Worst case scenario, he ends up frying himself, in which case we're back where we started."

"It's still our best bet of finding out what happened to Daemon," Clark reiterated. He looked around at his associates. "The decision is made. Sawyer is a go."

"I'll inform the President and the Joint Chiefs," said Hal Sinclair.

Outside, Tom paced back and forth trying to understand what had just happened in the conference room. Had Kevin gone off the deep end?

"You'll wear the floor out pacing like that," said Kevin.

"This isn't funny," said Tom seriously. "Kevin, do you have any idea what you just did in there?"

"I know what you're thinking," he said to his friend. "And no, I haven't lost my mind."

"Really? Because I was thinking of taking you down to medical and getting your head examined."

"That would be pretty pointless," Sawyer replied.

"Stop acting so relaxed," demanded Tom gruffly. "The Council may have bought the fearless leader routine, but I know you better than that."

"I had no choice, Tom. What they were proposing was too dangerous."

"And what do you call your proposal?"

"Don't you see, Tom?" asked Kevin. "I deliberately played right into their hand."

Tom stopped his pacing. "What? You mean they wanted you to volunteer?"

"Exactly," Kevin said. "It's only logical. If anyone's to blame, it will be me for taking on the risk myself."

"How did you know they were setting you up?"

"The whole situation was odd to begin with. Then when they mentioned Daemon the rest of the pieces fell into place. I don't know if you noticed, but Cleaver and Maxwell were watching me like a hawk, as if they were sizing me up for something. And that folder that Miller had in front of him? It was my agency personnel file."

"Well, I'm happy that you've finally solved the big mystery, but that still doesn't answer my question. Why did you, of all people, volunteer for such an insane mission?"

"Because I don't like the idea of having someone's blood on my hands," Kevin said firmly. "We've never tested the machine on human subjects."

"That's what I'm saying, Kevin. It's too risky."

"At least it'll be me taking the risk and not some CIA agent or someone I've never met. I know the dangers and the odds. They don't, and they know it. Besides, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to be the first anyway."

At that moment, the conference room door opened and then Clark ushered the two back inside.

"We've considered your proposal, Dr. Sawyer," said Clark. "We're in agreement with you in this case. Your mission will be to discover what happened to the Daemon virus. If you find that it still exists, you are ordered to use whatever means to destroy it. Secondary objectives include finding the virus's creator and the counter-program that stopped Daemon. Understood?"

"Yes, General, I understand."

"Very well. This meeting is adjourned. You depart in half an hour. Dismissed."

Kevin nodded and opened the conference room door for the members to exit. Tom followed up the rear of the group.

He stopped at Kevin. "I hope you know what you're doing, Kevin."

"Yeah," responded Kevin, "me too."


	3. CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2: Under Siege

Mainframe was in complete panic. The ruthless terror that had plagued the system for so long before had returned with a vengeance. Just when Daemon had been defeated, a menace from the past had returned to take her place. There was no telling what Megabyte was going to do now that he had gotten back into the Principal Office.

Memories of the first war with Megabyte flashed into everybody's mind like an almost forgotten nightmare.

The people of Mainframe couldn't live through that again. The first time had been too much. Too many loved ones had been lost in the war. Even though all the lost had been restored, it still didn't remove the memory of the anguish they had to endure before their suffering was relieved. All the pain, all the horror, the feeling of being afraid every day, nobody wanted that again. That was why every sprite and binome in the city would fight Megabyte to the last, to the death if necessary.

* * *

The War Room was totally under Megabyte's command. He had infected everyone except Enzo, who was being held by his cyborg father, and Phong, who still couldn't be infected, though Megabyte had drained him of energy. Now the wise old sprite just lied on the floor fading in and out of consciousness.

Enzo struggled to get out of his father's hold, but he was firmly held by the metallic arms of his dad's exoskeleton. Mike the TV had been infected as well, and now walked in a zombie-like fashion around the room.

The only thing Enzo could do was say things to Megabyte that would at most annoy him. "You'll never get away with this, tin butt," Enzo said angrily.

Megabyte looked over at Enzo. "Look around, boy, I already have. And your friends are helpless, they cannot help you. All of Mainframe, and soon the whole Net, will be mine."

"You're still singing the same ole tune, Megabyte. You're like a broken audio file," snapped the boy.

Megabyte shot Enzo an angry glance that made his skin creep. Megabyte had obviously not lost his touch in making the young sprite feel helpless. His father wasn't helping, but Enzo realized that he no longer had control over his robotic body. If he could somehow break the protective bubble that kept the nullified form of Welman Matrix in his exoskeleton suit, it would lose power. At present, though, Enzo was helpless to make any kind of maneuver that would get him and his father out of the War Room with all their functions intact.

A viral binome guard walked up to Megabyte and saluted. "Sir," said the binome, "we have located the and the two robots, Hack and Slash."

"Dot," Enzo said in a whisper to himself, and then he looked up at his father. "Dad, we have to do something."

"I know, son, but I can't move this thing." His father's voice sounded distressed. "Megabyte has total power over my exo-robotic suit. It's completely out of my control."

"They pose no threat," said Megabyte to the infected binome. "Never mind with them. Now leave me. I need to concentrate on this new program."

Another thing Enzo noticed about Megabyte that had not changed was his pride and overconfidence. It seemed obvious to Enzo that for such an evil genus, Megabyte sure was dumb.

"Bob and the others will stop you. You'll never win, Megabyte. When it comes right down to it, you're nothing but a demented, insane, overzealous..."

"Really," said the virus, "I had no idea you had so many words in your vocabulary. And all this time I thought there were nothing but temporary files floating around in that brain of yours."

"When Matrix gets here he'll blast you into a million bits," said Enzo.

"I don't think so. I've locked that bit-for-brain brute and the Guardian in the cellblock corridor. They won't be getting free any time soon."

"Mouse and AndrAIa are still out there, and so is Dot."

"Oh my. I'm so terrified," said Megabyte in a mocking tone. "The game sprite and the hacker don't stand a chance. And your sister is in far less than capable hands with those two bumbling fools guarding her. Nothing can stand in my way this time!" He approached Enzo intimidatingly.

"I wouldn't hold my breath on that!" shouted Enzo.

Megabyte chuckled. "Oh, aren't we feisty. Maybe you are more like your brother than I gave you credit for."

Enzo suddenly calmed down at what he heard. "What do you mean?"

"It's quite understandable. The both of you are the same, so I suppose you share a common... ruthlessness. I must say, I rather admire it."

Enzo was disturbed by these words. He had never thought of himself as ruthless. It was true that Matrix had done some things that would be considered ruthless, but it showed on his face how troubled he was because of what he had done. Even though he tried not to show it, he had remorse for the things he had done to get back to Mainframe. Enzo knew that. Everyone did, especially Matrix himself.

"My brother may be a null sometimes, but at least he's sorry for his actions. That's more than I can say for you."

"Yes, well, that's his one weakness: he actually still cares."

"Well, sorry if he doesn't meet your standards. You're nothing but a low-rez..."

"Welman, would you please put a hand over your son's mouth. I need to concentrate on my program for the Gateway Command." Automatically, the robotic arm placed its hand over Enzo's mouth where only a few muffled sounds were heard from the young sprite's voice, Welman Matrix unable to control his mode of conveyance. "That's better," Megabyte said.

Then he turned his attention to Phong. He walked over to him and picked him up by the throat.

"Well, old sprite, the end has come for you," he said.

Phong managed to get a statement out before going under again. "Still cannot... infect me, Megabyte."

Megabyte tossed him over to two other infected binomes. "File lock him in Miss Matrix's office. I want him to see the Net fall under my power."

* * *

"Hurry up, Dot," said Hack in his usual panicky tone of voice. "We need to get out of here before Megabyte finds us!"

"Yeah, there's no telling what he'll do to us now!" exclaimed Slash.

"I'm almost there, guys," said Dot, her voice low and tense. A few wires ran from her organizer into the junction box protruding from the wall she was facing. All she had to do was override some security lockouts and she would be in. "Just a few more security codes to enter and we can shut down the main power grid."

Normally, Dot didn't let her emotions show. She had developed this over time from all the hardship she had endured. But her little brother and father were in there with the sickest, most evil being she had ever met. She wouldn't let anything happen to them, and she was determined to make Megabyte pay for everything he had done to her family.

Hack and Slash were, as usual, hysterical. Both nervously looking up and down the corridor to see if anything was coming, praying to the user that Megabyte wouldn't find them.

A few microseconds ago Hack and Slash had been dragging her through the Principal Office. When Dot finally got them to stop and shut up, she began thinking of a plan to put Megabyte out of commission long enough for the system's defense forces to regain control. The first big problem was the shields. The first thing Megabyte did was isolate himself within the building after taking control of the War Room. There he had control over all the building's systems: environment, weapons, shields, internal security, everything.

Dot knew Megabyte could not take the whole Principal Office by himself. Most likely he would use the internal security grid to seal off certain sections to contain P.O. staff. If Megabyte could create aliases, especially multiple aliases at the same time, then he could easily have the whole building infected within a matter of milliseconds.

"Finally," Dot said after she inputted one last command. "I've got access to all the power systems. All I have to do now is execute a complete shut down."

"Hack?" asked Slash.

"What is it?"

"Why are we trying to shut off the power instead of getting out of here?" The blue robot's voice was trembling, and he was twiddling his thumbs nervously.

"What kind of question is that? Why do you ask such dumb questions for?" Hack thought to himself for a nanosecond, then turned to Dot. "Um, Dot, why are we trying to shut off the power instead of trying to get out of here?"

"Because, we can't let Megabyte get control of Mainframe again. And with my father's Gateway Command he can open a portal to any system he wants. As long as the power is off he can't use it," Dot explained, still working on her organizer.

"You see, dipswitch? That's why," said Hack.

"Unfortunately, with the shields still up we can't get out either. And since they're redundant we'll have to shut them down from the source."

"Get it now?" asked Hack of his counterpart.

"Well, I just wanted to know." Suddenly the lights went off. "Hey, who turned out the lights? I don't like the dark," said Slash.

"All right, the power's off," said Dot. The dim emergency lights clicked on. "Now Megabyte can't use the Gateway Command to escape."

"Good, now let's get out of here before Megabyte shows up," said Slash.

"What's the matter with you? Are you always going to be a coward?" asked Hack.

"Yes," said Slash sorrowfully, looking at the ground.

"What are you, a man or a mouse?" asked Hack.

"Is that a trick question, because I'm not so good with those."

"It's all right, guys," said Dot peacefully. "You can go if you want, but I have got to stay here. Megabyte still has my father and Enzo, and I won't leave without them. I have no intention of letting Megabyte take over the system again, not after what he's done."

The red and blue droids looked at each other, as if contemplating what might happen to them if they stayed.

"Dot," said Hack, "Phong told us to take care of you. That's why he rebuilt us. And that's what we're going to do."

"We are?" asked Slash.

"Yes ― we ― are." Hack shot Slash an annoyed glance.

"Thanks, guys." Her voice was less tense now. Dot knew she could count on Hack and Slash, even if they were a little slow on clockspeed.

* * *

When the emergency lights in the War Room clicked on, every vidwindow was closed, the control stations were nonresponsive, and worse yet, Megabyte mentally sensed his last alias fade from his control. He was weakened from the strain of sustaining so many, and he would have to allow his body to make up the energy. He had no more need to keep them now anyway. Almost everyone inside was infected. It was only a matter of time before he got the rest.

"What's happened?" shouted Megabyte angrily.

"The power is offline. All systems are inoperative," reported one binome.

"Well, get it online!" commanded Megabyte angrily. "I need power to the Gateway Command."

"Sir, we can install an emergency generator to the device. It would allow us to proceed with reprogramming the gate while someone else works on the main power grid," said Specky, also under Megabyte's influence.

"Good," Megabyte said. "Get on it." He also handed a data disk to him. "And when you get it online I want you to run this program on the Gateway Command. Be very careful when you activate it. The portal will seem very unstable at first."

"Understood." The infected binome walked off.

"I said Dot would stop you," said Enzo mockingly.

Megabyte whipped around and gave Enzo a look of total contempt. Enzo thought that he had shot his mouth off at exactly the wrong time as the virus began to move toward the young sprite in a predatory manner, his claws hanging in full view of the young sprite. Then Megabyte stopped and tapped his chin with his right claw. Then his frown turned into a wicked smile.

"I think I know just what to do with you," he said in a low voice. Then he began to chuckle.

* * *

Matrix held up his gun and fired at the door. A blue ball of energy was expelled from the barrel. As it collided with the door, white light flashed, momentarily blinding the two Guardians. When they looked back, the door was still intact.

"You've got to be kidding," Matrix said, exasperated. "That was the most powerful energy bomb I have."

"Looks like Phong and Dot have been working on the security defenses in the Principal Office," Bob said.

Matrix crouched down in front of the door and tried to squeeze his fingers underneath the bottom and lift it up, but it wouldn't move.

"It's no use," said Matrix, aggravated. "The door won't budge."

"Hold on, Matrix," Bob said, "don't wear yourself out. We'll just have to try something else."

"Do you think Glitch can help?" asked Matrix.

"We can see. Glitch: saw." Glitch's circular face transformed into a saw blade.

Bob held it up to the door, and it flew off his wrist and began to saw at the obstruction. Sparks flew as the blade suspended itself in the air and revolved swiftly, trying to cut the door in half but with no success.

"Glitch: abort," Bob commanded. The saw blade stopped and returned to the rectangular base on Bob's wrist, then returned to its normal circular form. "Nothing."

"This is useless," said Matrix. "Megabyte's got us trapped like rats."

"I'm more concerned with what Megabyte said about preparing for a hunt," Bob said.

"What in the Net do you think he meant by that, Bob?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever he meant, it didn't sound good."

Then Matrix realized something. "The Gateway Command. It's completely unprotected. If Megabyte gets the power back on he can portal to any system he wants."

"We've got to warn the Supercomputer," Bob said. "Glitch: emergency channel. Get me Turbo."

The keytool made several computational sounds then indicated that it could not establish communications with the Supercomputer.

"What's wrong, Bob?" asked Matrix.

"The shields must be up. They draw power straight from the core, so they're not affected by the power loss. It's blocking any communication into or out of the building."

"So we can't even call for reinforcements."

"We're still in the clear as long as the power stays off. I wonder what caused it to shut down anyway."

Glitch beeped and Dot's voice came through. "Bob, are you there?"

Bob lifted Glitch toward his face and saw Dot's face on its screen. "Yeah, Dot," Bob said. "Glad to see you made it out all right."

"You too," she said.

"Matrix and I are both locked in the corridor outside the cellblock. Can you help us out?"

"Just give me a nano. I'm at a control junction right now. I shut down the main power grid so Megabyte couldn't use the Gateway to escape."

"Good thinking, Dot," Bob commented. "Now he's trapped. At least until he gets the power back online."

As he looked at Dot on the screen, Bob couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking right now. Was she thinking about them? About what was going to happen between them once they got out of this mess? He could see the hurt in her eyes.

Megabyte would pay for what he had done to Dot, to both of them, to everyone. A part of him screamed for revenge, that he should delete the virus at first sight and deal with the consequences later. Yet another, more rational part of him demanded that he remain calm, that deletion wasn't the answer; he could still reprogram the virus that had completely upended his life.

"He won't be doing that any time soon," Dot said. "I've scrambled the codes to the energy conduits. It'll take him cycles to figure it out."

"Way ― to ― go, sis!" exclaimed Matrix.

"The shields are another story," Dot said. "I'll have to figure out a way to bring them down if we ever expect to get any backup."

The door to the corridor opened suddenly. "Great work, Dot," said Bob.

"I've opened every security barrier in that section and cleared you a path to the Core Room."

"Why the Core Room? You said you scrambled the power grid," said Matrix.

"Megabyte will probably try to use an emergency generator to restore power to the Gateway Command," explained Dot.

"Why do I get the feeling you have a plan?" asked Bob.

"It can't work unless you're there. Megabyte will probably have my father and Enzo with him. When they're all in the Core Room we can rescue them and stop Megabyte all at once."

"Dot, you're amazing," said Bob earnestly. He saw her blush slightly. "We're on our way."

"Dot, is AndrAIa with you?" asked Matrix, concerned.

"No. But I saw her get out of the War Room with Mouse."

Matrix looked concerned for a moment. Bob reassured him that she was all right. "It's okay," Matrix said. "Besides, I think I know where she'll be."

* * *

AndrAIa slowly walked toward the heavy armored door of the Armory Room. She and Mouse had been separated when they couldn't get back into the War Room. Megabyte had placed a rotating cryptographic algorithm on the door so the code changed practically every nanosecond. Not even Mouse was fast enough to break it. They split up trying to find the others, but she had had no success in the miles of tunnels and corridors of the Principal Office. She looked it over from top to bottom. The reinforced door of twelve feet of solid steel was the only thing that separated her from the armaments inside.

"There's no way I can get in here without power, and I definitely can't force it open," she said to herself.

Then she heard a voice from above her head. "Maybe I can help you out there, honey."

AndrAIa looked up and saw Mouse looking down at her from an overhead air duct opening.

"What are you doing up there, Mouse?" asked AndrAIa.

"Gettin' in this joint. Hold on a nano, and I'll drop you a line."

Then AndrAIa heard the sounds of viral binomes coming toward the room.

"Hurry, Mouse," said AndrAIa. "They're coming this way."

The end of the rope landed on the floor in front of AndrAIa's feet. "Hurry. Climb up," said Mouse.

AndrAIa grabbed the rope and effortlessly began to climb. One hand after the other, smoothly she gained altitude from the floor. Finally, she reached the opening to the duct, and Mouse helped her climb the rest of the way inside. The infected binomes were almost beneath them. They hoisted the rope up swiftly just as they passed under them. They didn't see a thing.

They were hooking up an energy generator to the access panel of the Armory Room door. When they activated it, the panel glowed green in the shape of a handprint.

One of the binomes put his hand to it. He was one of the Principal Office personnel. AndrAIa and Mouse both recognized him. The handprint turned blue and the computerized voice said, "Access granted." The door opened and they went inside.

Mouse and AndrAIa crawled through the air conduit; they followed it until they were in the ductwork of the Armory Room. They peered through another vent cover and looked down on the virals. The binomes pulled out standard issue flashlights and started to walk around through the room. They moved under the vent access.

Mouse looked at AndrAIa, and she nodded. She slowly took the vent cover loose, careful as not to make a sound. Mouse let the rope down to the floor behind the binomes who were looking around the room, evidently trying to figure out what to remove first. The two sprites slowly eased down the rope and touched down behind the team of binomes. They were completely unsuspecting victims.

"Well, hi there, sugah," said Mouse in her country accent.

The team of virals turned around, startled, and the next thing they saw was the sight of Mouse and AndrAIa's fists flying into their faces.

* * *

The troops scrambled around the outside of the Principal Office. Their vehicles were in an attack position. When the shield went down they would be ready. Ray Tracer paced nervously back and forth behind the CPU captain who was maintaining a watchful eye on the building.

He looked at Ray. "As soon as those shields come down we'll be ready to invade the Principal Office."

Ray halted. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"It depends," the captain said. "If they're able to get to the shield generator we'll detect an energy spike before it goes down. But first they'll have to initiate the shutdown procedure, and that may take a while."

"Which means they're the only ones that can stop Megabyte," said Ray with a hint of worry.

The captain tried to reassure Ray as well as himself. "We've got the best possible people in there. They won't let Megabyte have Mainframe without a fight."

"I know," said Ray. Then he resumed his pacing. He wanted to get inside. He wanted to help Mouse, but as long as he was out here there was nothing he could do. Just stand and wait.

* * *

Dot, Hack, and Slash reached the shield generator. She checked the room thoroughly for signs of a trap, but saw none.

"It's clear," said Dot to Hack and Slash. She motioned for them to enter with her.

The shield generator room was thirty feet high, twenty feet across, and brightly lit. In the center was the shield generator, a long, glowing tube that ascended the entire height of the room. Every five feet along the tube there were three power distribution conduits that extended into the walls. At the base of the generator was the main interface terminal.

The generator was designed to draw energy directly from the core so that even if the entire system experienced a total power-down, the Principal Office could maintain its defenses in case of an attack. It redistributed core energy and transformed it into the shield. By shutting it down they could get the CPUs into the Principal Office and take care of Megabyte once and for all. They couldn't shut it down all at once, though. That would trigger a massive power surge through the core. They would have to put it on shut down mode first and initiate the timer.

Dot stepped up to the controls and began to initiate the shut down sequence. "You guys keep an eye out for any guards while I do this," she said.

"Okeydokey," said Slash.

They turned around and took positions on either side of the doorway, cautiously looking up and down the hall. Dot worked at the main terminal, typing in commands and punching in access codes for the shutdown sequence.

 _This is the beginning of the end for you_ , _Megabyte_ , Dot thought to herself. She felt a mix of hatred penetrate her as she processed those words. She wanted to see Megabyte erased more than words could say. The torment he had put her and her family through was unforgivable. Ever since that fateful second when Enzo and AndrAIa had gotten trapped inside that game cube, she had been wasting away inside. The hours of constant struggle against the virus had worn her spirit away. Second by second, she felt her very soul slowly get dimmer and dimmer. Hope no longer held a place in her vocabulary. All she had were empty tears from an empty shell.

Then for a while her hope came back. She remembered how she felt the moment she and Bob met each other again, and when she was reunited with her brother after she thought him dead. It was like being given a new life. She felt alive again and full of hope.

At least, that was how she felt for a time. Immediately following Megabyte's defeat another threat made its appearance. She had gone from leading a ragtag militia to commanding the last defense against an unstoppable force of evil in less than a minute, and this time she was up against a foe more powerful and dangerous than her pervious adversary. Life had passed by her in a blur, she unable to control the frantic pace at which it seemed to be racing through her fingers.

Hack started hearing voices coming from down the hall. "Dot, we've got company," he said.

"Just a nanosecond." She took her organizer from her pocket and programmed it to initiate the shut down sequence for her. She attached it to the back input port on the other side of the console, completely out of view. "Alright, let's go."

She and Hack and Slash raced out of the room and dodged around a corner.

The infected binomes entered the shield room and looked around. A vidwindow opened in front of them, and on the other end was Megabyte.

"Report," commanded Megabyte.

"Sir, the shield generator is secured. No sign that anyone has been here," said one of the infected binomes.

"Very well. Stand guard and delete anyone that comes inside that's not viral."

"Understood," said the binome, and the vidwindow closed.

"Perfect," said Dot. "They don't suspect a thing."

"How long until the shields go down?" asked Hack.

"At least twenty microseconds. That should give us enough time to set a trap for Megabyte. Let's get to the Core Room."

They took off down the hall toward the Gateway Command.


	4. CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3: Strategy

Kevin was in the digitization room. He was wearing an astronaut's spacesuit, orange on the outside and blue lining on the inside. The NSC members watched as he stood looking at the control room.

Tom spoke into the microphone which was linked to the transceiver in Kevin's helmet. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Ready to rock and roll," Kevin said.

The head technician unbuckled the right glove of Kevin's suit and snapped the metallic retrieval module on his wrist like a normal wristwatch.

"What is that?" asked Sinclair.

"It's called a retrieval module," said Sophie. "It contains the necessary data required to bring Kevin back to the real world. It's what he uses to call for his extraction."

"What necessary data are you referring to?" Cleaver asked.

Kevin explained, "Before, I said that in order to digitize an object, we have to take a partial scan of its molecular structure. But since the state of a particle is never the same over a prolonged period of time anyway, the retrieval module records the changes my data structure goes through while I'm in cyberspace. When I come back, the machine has the information it needs to rebuild my body atom by atom."

 _That is_ , _I hope_ , he thought to himself.

"I'm a little confused," said Clark. "You keep saying words like 'rebuild' and 'reconstruct.' Do you actually break matter down with this machine?"

"Not at all," said Sophie. "The process doesn't require any breaking down of matter, only the disruption of matter. You see, the machine doesn't preserve the matter in which an object is made of, only the information of its physical state."

"You lost me," said Miller.

"According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, there's a limit to how much information we can obtain about an atomic particle's physical state before it becomes too disrupted by the scanning process. So we scan out as much information as possible about Kevin's molecular structure before it becomes too unstable. When we do that, we have a partial definition of his physical state, and as a result, the actual matter he's made up of is destroyed."

"So does he die?" asked Cleaver.

"No, he doesn't die," said Tom. "Because of entanglement, as we explained before, the information about Kevin's physical state that cannot be scanned by the lasers is conveyed to the other piece of information instantly because they come from the same source."

"So what you're saying is that digitization is a transfer of information about matter and not a transfer of the actual matter itself," said Cleaver.

"Exactly," said Tom. "You see, matter itself contains information, and since cyberspace is basically a communication of information to different computers, all that needs to be done is to take the information describing the physical state about an object and put it in the computer. Instead of a physical person, you have a computer program that is exactly like the subject."

"But how do you get him back?" she asked.

"Entanglement allows it to work both ways," said Kevin through the intercom.

"Just as physical states of matter can be scanned and downloaded into a computer system, the physical state can be used as a pattern to reshape matter back into a physical being, even though the original matter was destroyed."

"So you would basically come back as a copy?" asked Maxwell.

"A material copy, yes," said Kevin. "When we bring an object back from VR we fill the opposite chamber with hydrogen gas. Since matter is destroyed in the insertion, we have to use raw materials to create the facsimile. The data from the retrieval module is what allows the lasers to maneuver the atomic and subatomic particles of the hydrogen into the state of my body."

"And you're okay with this?" asked Cleaver.

"You mean coming back as a facsimile?" Kevin thought for a moment, then turned back to the window. "I suppose to some people it might be a little upsetting, but as long as I keep my original physical state, it doesn't matter that my body is made of replicated matter. I'll still be Kevin Sawyer in every conceivable way."

"What will it feel like when he becomes digitized?" asked Director Maxwell.

"No one knows what cyberspace is like because it has no definite shape or form," said Kellous. "Kevin will actually be transformed into a computer program, so he'll experience conscious thought in a way that no one has ever perceived before."

"How long will Dr. Sawyer have to stay in there?" asked Kelly Cleaver.

"For us it might only be a few seconds. But for Kevin it'll feel like days," said Vivian.

"What do you mean?" asked Sinclair.

Kevin responded through his microphone. "There's a differentiation between how time runs in the real world and how it runs inside virtual reality. A second inside a computer is equivalent to a day on the outside world. So if I return in five seconds, I'll have felt like I was gone five days."

"This time dilation also makes communication with Kevin impossible when he goes through," said Tom.

"So he'll be completely out of contact with us?" asked Cleaver.

"Afraid so," said Vivian. "He'll be on his own."

"What about weapons?" asked Clark.

"We've built a few pieces of equipment that were designed specifically to function inside a virtual environment. But they're all experimental and untested," explained Tom. "Hopefully, he won't run into any trouble while he's inside."

 _What kind of trouble could there be in a computer?_ thought Sinclair.

* * *

Bob and Matrix walked cautiously toward the Core Room. They reached the entrance and took positions on opposite sides of the doorway. They looked inside and saw a team of infected Principal Office binomes working on the Gateway Command.

They were hooking up a large energy generator to the Gateway and Specky was downloading some sort of program into its systems.

"What are they doing, Bob?" asked Matrix.

"It looks like they're getting ready to bring it online."

"Do you think Megabyte will go for the Supercomputer?"

"Probably. That time in the Web hasn't changed his appetite for power. And while the shields are still up I can't warn Turbo."

Their attention immediately turned to the sound of footsteps echoing through the hallway.

"Someone's coming," said Matrix.

There was a passage directly opposite the entrance to the Core Room that had no emergency lights active, making it look completely dark.

"We'll hide in there and ambush them," said Bob, and he and Matrix dove into the other passageway.

They waited patiently until their targets were right in front of them, then Bob and Matrix lunged forward, grabbed the three of them, and pulled them into the dark hallway. Immediately, Bob sensed that this was not a viral binome, but a woman. It was Dot. He was too late in realizing this, for the next thing he knew she stomped fiercely on his right foot, causing him to let go of her, and then she flipped him over onto the floor.

"I'll show you," she shouted in the darkness.

"Dot, wait, it's us," Bob said, hoping to ward off another attack from Dot. "Glitch: light."

Glitch's circular face morphed into a lamp and illuminated the situation. Dot was straddling Bob with one hand gripping his collar and the other balled into a fist pulled back, ready to strike.

"Bob?"

"Yeah, it's me. Sorry if we scared you, Dot."

"I'm fine. Are you okay?" Dot was searching Bob's face to see if she had hurt him.

"My foot's throbbing a little, but other than that I'm good."

They stayed in that position searching each other's eyes, waiting for the other to do or say something. They were snapped out of their trance with the distressing call of Hack and Slash.

"Hey, help!"

"I can't breathe."

"Having trouble breathing here!"

"Aw, for cryin' out loud," said Matrix.

He was sitting on top of Hack and Slash, effectively pinning them to the ground.

"Come on, Matrix. Let them go," said Dot to her brother.

He got up and heard a loud expression of exasperation from the two droids.

They breathed deeply. "Oh, that feels better," Hack said.

"Gee, that's good," said Slash.

Matrix turned to Bob and Dot, who were still on the floor. "Are you two finished?" he asked in an amused tone.

"Huh?" They both looked at each other and realized there was a job to do. They showed a little sign of embarrassment as they helped each other up to their feet.

"Alright, Dot," Bob said, "we're here, so what's the plan?"

"The plan," came a voice from the entrance to the hallway, "is surrender."

Megabyte emerged with a reinforcement of viral binomes with weapons. Beside him was Welman holding Enzo in his grasp. Megabyte held his claw up to Enzo's neck.

"Now, unless you want this to become rather ugly," he said, "I suggest you don't do anything foolish."

Matrix was doing everything but shooting himself in the foot not to send Megabyte right into deletion, but he knew better. Little Enzo, Matrix's copy, his little brother, was at the mercy of the virus. Matrix didn't want to do anything that would bring harm to his younger self, so he did nothing.

"Guys, help," pleaded Enzo.

"Don't worry, kid. You're gonna be fine," reassured Matrix.

"None of you will be fine for much longer," said Megabyte in his sinister tone. "Come with me."

The viral soldiers herded them with their weapons into the Core Room.

* * *

The technicians locked Kevin's helmet down and lowered the shaded faceplate, then proceeded to activate the retrieval module.

"What if the scan is wrong?" asked Sinclair.

"It can't be. We use the first scan as a template to correct any anomalies that might form in the retrieval module's readings. To date, we've had no bad scans," said Tom.

Kevin's voice came through the intercom. "The retrieval module's set. I'm ready."

"Dr. Sawyer," said General Clark, "we're sending you to the computer system where the counteracting program originated. Learn everything you can, then move on to the Pentagon supercomputer. Your module has been programmed with the IP addresses necessary to get you where you need to go."

"Good luck, Dr. Sawyer," said Cleaver. "We're counting on you."

"Thank you, Miss Cleaver," said Kevin, appreciating the sentiment.

He walked toward the airlock and opened the outer door. He shook the technicians' hands, and they sealed him in.

"Depressurize the chamber," ordered Tom.

The air within the chamber and the airlock was pumped out, and a green light indicated when it was clear for him to proceed.

"We vacuum out the air in the chamber to reduce the interference the lasers may encounter," Tom explained.

Kevin sealed the inner door and stood in the center of the platform. "Alright, let's make history," he said.

* * *

They stood facing the Gateway Command. They all knew what Megabyte was doing. His ego was the biggest part of him, and he was going to have them here to witness whatever he was doing.

Enzo was still struggling against his father's hold.

"Let go of me, Dad," Enzo said.

"Let the boy go, Professor. He's not a problem now," Megabyte said.

The exo-suit released him and Enzo joined his friends. Then the suit lost power and collapsed. The protective bubble container opened and the nullified Welman Matrix slithered out.

"So what's your plan this time, Megabyte?" asked Bob. "Try to infect the Supercomputer again?"

"Oh, I intend to go much further than just the Supercomputer, Bob."

A binome reported to Megabyte, "Sir, the Gateway has been modified to run the bypass program. Awaiting your order."

"Excellent," said Megabyte in a satisfied tone. "Prepare to establish a connection."

"Yes, sir," said the binome.

"What are you up to, Megabyte?" asked Dot.

"You'll find out soon enough, Miss Matrix." Megabyte turned to the other binomes operating the Gateway. "Activate the ping function."

Still under Megabyte's infection, Specky pressed the key to activate the ping, and a sonar pulse was dispersed throughout cyberspace. Soon it returned, indicating it had locked onto a system. "Locked on," said Specky. "Establishing connection, now."

A portal formed instantly, and what they saw on the other side struck fear into their processors. Long, scaly tentacles gathered around the event horizon of the gateway. They all knew where the Gateway had connected to. It was the Web.

"Mouse did an excellent job in erasing Mainframe's address from the Web," Megabyte said. "Clever girl, but not clever enough."

"Have you popped the motherboard?" shouted Bob. "Shut down the Gateway before something comes through."

"I'm counting on that, Guardian."

Megabyte stood in front of the Gateway and closed his eyes as if he were concentrating.

"What's he doing, Dot?" asked young Enzo.

"I don't know," she said, her voice conveying a nervous worry.

All of a sudden, a Web Creature flew out of the portal and started flying around the room. It let out loud moans and screams as it tried to figure out where it had journeyed to.

Megabyte turned to face the creature and held out his hand. As if it knew the virus, the creature swooped down and calmly hovered in front of him.

"He can control Web Creatures," said Matrix.

"This is bad," said Bob. "This is very bad. If he can communicate with Web Creatures then there's no range to what he can do now."

"You're correct, Bob," said Megabyte. "The Web not only changed my body, but it also changed my mind as well. I began to see that I could manipulate the simple minds of creatures like this through telepathy. Soon, I realized my new functions could give me the power to go farther than I ever thought possible. With me controlling an entire army of Web Creatures I can conquer the known Net."

"Maybe you need a history lesson. Daemon tried to do the same thing, and she still lost," said young Enzo.

"How true. But if it weren't for my dear sister, Hexadecimal, she would have succeeded. And although Daemon's planning was flawless, she moved too slowly, biding her time infecting the pathways of the Internet. I will finish where she left off and do it in one swift stroke. A massive incursion upon the whole Net."

"He's gotten ever crazier than Hex," whispered Matrix.

"I heard that, boy," snapped Megabyte. "Soon, you will all see my vision and those who stand before me will be deleted."

 _That's what the alias was for_ , Bob thought to himself, realizing it for the first time. Megabyte made it look like he wanted to get to the Supercomputer like he always did, but instead this was his entire plan from the start.

Everything suddenly seemed hopeless to Bob, but Dot seemed at ease. She knew she had gotten the better of Megabyte. Everything was going according to plan.

* * *

"Ready for digital insertion," said Sophie.

"Okay, people, look alive," said Tom. "I want a go/no-go for digitization. Medical."

"Go," Kellous said.

"Computer control."

"Go," announced Vivian.

"Quantum systems."

"Go," said Sophie.

"Pilot."

"Ready and willing," said Kevin.

"Set countdown at thirty seconds. Launch on my command," said Tom.

In the back of the control room, Miller whispered into General Clark's ear. "What if this stunt doesn't work? What if Sawyer doesn't find what we're looking for?"

"Then it'll be one less thing we have to worry about," replied Clark.

"And what if he doesn't come back at all?"

There was a pause. "We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it."

* * *

Megabyte stood in front of the Web Creature. If he could succeed where Daemon had failed, then they were all in big trouble.

Bob saw that it was a Class L: middle stage of development, very strong and fast. If it could get enough energy, it could upgrade to a Class M or N. If Megabyte could control Web Creatures like this one and others of higher classes, then he really could invade the Net. The Supercomputer was still recovering from Daemon's infection. If he hit it now there would be no stopping him.

 _This is not good._

Megabyte spoke to the Web Creature. "Go back through and summon the others. When they arrive they can... wet their appetites."

Young Enzo swallowed hard. Evidently, this is what Megabyte had meant by a hunt, as in the Web Creatures hunting them.

"Go," said Megabyte, pointing to the portal.

The Web Creature moaned and levitated into the air, then flew back through the portal.

Dot, in a last attempt at retribution, said, "You'll never get away with this, Megabyte. We'll find a way to stop you."

"Why, Miss Matrix, can't you see that I have already won? When my forces dominate the whole Net every sprite and binome throughout every system will heed to my Will. Pity you won't be around to see it."

"There will always be someone there to stop you, Mega-dump," said young Enzo. "No matter what system you infect or how many innocent people you delete, you'll never win."

"One last stab at the big bad virus, eh, boy?"

"The Guardian Collective won't let a single Web Creature leave this system, Megabyte. You know that as well as I do," Bob said.

"But the Guardians don't know I've opened Mainframe to the Web. By the time I amass my army it will be too late."

"Do you really think that you can control the whole Net?" said Matrix.

"I don't think. I know. I've spent enough time in the Web to know that Web Creatures make the perfect soldier; they're strong, nearly indestructible, and they follow orders to the letter. And with the Supercomputer's defenses weakened from Daemon, there will be no stopping me."

Matrix would have drawn Gun and blasted Megabyte then and there, but they had taken it from him. Even if he did have his weapon, Matrix saw that Megabyte had the upper hand and it would do no good.

"No matter where you are or what system you infect, there will always be someone to stand up to you, Megabyte," said Dot with an anger all her own.

He advanced toward Dot, trying to intimidate her, but Bob's own rage was boiling now. He held his clawed hand up to her face. "I beg to differ, Miss Matrix."

Bob stepped in front of Dot.

"Get back from her, Megabyte!" he shouted.

Amused, Megabyte said, "Well, well, aren't we testy."

"You won't touch her," said Bob defiantly.

"Even after she abandoned you, Guardian, you still love her?"

"We both know it was another one of your twisted plans. You played on her feelings for me to get to the Gateway Command."

"Yes. And it was so... easy. In fact, I still think she preferred you the way you were before and not how you are now. Otherwise, she wouldn't have accepted my proposal to marriage while I was pretending to be you."

"But then I survived. And I came back to expose you for what you really were."

"How true. Yet you still tried to win back Dot's affections. You had to prove yourself worthy. Such a ridiculous effort."

Megabyte was gloating. He was savoring every moment of this, as he knew he was pushing Bob to the limit. He had gotten his ultimate revenge against the Guardian and his lover, and every line of malicious code within him was swelling with glee.

"And you still believe that you can turn me into an ordinary sprite like yourself?"

"It worked for Hex; she became a sprite. But that was only because she wanted to. Now I know that no matter what we do, you can never be good. You choose to be evil."

"I'm glad we've finally reached an understanding."

Bob glanced at Dot as two big tears rolled down both sides of her face. She was hurting, and he wished to comfort her. But in some sense he knew that even if circumstances were different she wouldn't let him. She was too ashamed of herself having given up on Bob again. Megabyte had played on her innermost desires merely to attain a sense of immortality and power.

 _Dot deserves so much more than this_ , Bob thought. And at the same time he wondered if Megabyte was right. What if she did like who he was then better than who he was now? The Web had changed Bob both mentally and physically. He was not the same man he had been when he left. The things he had gone through and experienced, the never-ending struggles of trying to survive, they had all affected him, matured him. Bob still possessed the qualities that Megabyte had manipulated to his own personal ends, yet he was different. Bob's time in the Web had simply molded him into a better man than he had been before he left. That's what had changed.

Megabyte approached Hack and Slash and scowled when one retreated behind the other like a scared rodent.

"Uh... gulp... hiya..." started Hack.

"Boss..." finished Slash from behind.

"Well, well," Megabyte began, "if it isn't the traitors."

"'Traitor' is such a strong word," Hack said.

"We just switched sides."

Hack whispered, "That means the same thing."

"No, that's defecting."

"Same difference."

"No, it's not."

"Silence, you mechanical morons!" Both Hack and Slash shivered in fear, clutching each other like scared children. "Why I kept you around as long as I did, I will never understand. If I thought it was worth my time, I would drain the energy out of both of you. Luckily, my pets will need nourishment when they arrive. At least you will be of some use to me then." Megabyte turned away, then continued to drone on about his grand plan. "Soon, the entire Net will bow before me. The Guardian Collective will fall, and all who stand before me will be deleted."

Dot thought her plan had failed. She couldn't keep Megabyte busy enough until the shields came down.

All seemed hopeless until they heard a loud crash from behind them. It was Mouse and AndrAIa in exoskeleton suits. They had bashed through the main entrance of the room.

Mouse, in her casual sense of humor, said, "Hope we're not disturbin' anything important, sugah."

Megabyte lashed his infectious tentacles from his arm at the two super-sprites. But they caught them in their own robotic claws and threw him into the opposite wall. The viral soldiers scrambled and began attacking the women.

"Hope we're not late, Sparky," said AndrAIa to Matrix.

"Right on time and not a moment too soon. As usual." He mentally called to his weapon and it flew into his hand.

His shots from Gun exploded on the floor, knocking the infected binomes all over the place. His first instinct was to delete them straight off, but he repressed the urge. These people were innocent bystanders. It was Megabyte he was really after.

Bob said to Dot, "Come on, we've got to shut down that portal." He grabbed her wrist and they ran up to the Gateway Command.

Dot shouted to Hack and Slash, "Hack, Slash, get Enzo out of here!"

The two droids grabbed young Enzo by the arms, lifted him off his feet, and hurried out the door of the room.

"Hey guys, let me go. I want to stay," Enzo protested.

* * *

"Fifteen seconds until digital insertion," said Kellous. "Pulse steady. BP 30 over 140."

It seemed like forever. The timer descended toward that one moment when the line between physical reality and virtual reality would be crossed. And the man who would become the first cybernaut stood serenely in the digitization chamber. Kevin could barely contain his excitement for what was about to happen. Luckily, his enthusiasm helped dull his sense of anxiety. He was about to get a glimpse of something humankind had never seen before.

 _Then there's also the chance of being scrambled like a quantum egg_ , he thought. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea._

Kellous counted down. Five seconds.

"Four... three... two... one."

"Fire," ordered Tom.

 _Too late._

Sophie pressed the button on her console and the process began.


	5. CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4: Arrival

The battle raged on in the Core Room. There were more virals flooding the room every microsecond. Mouse and AndrAIa were slinging and throwing binomes left and right.

"There's too many of 'em. We need reinforcements," said Mouse.

"Don't worry, Mouse," yelled Dot, "they're coming."

In the shield room the digital counter on the organizer reached 00 and the generator shut down.

On the outside, the shield dropped and Ray gave the order to move in. "Let's go get 'em, mates." He jumped on his board and led the CPUs into the Principal Office.

They were met with armed, infected binomes. Megabyte had somehow infected every member of the Principal Office workforce, possibly through his aliases. They put up a hard fight, but the CPUs were able to force their way back into the Principal Office.

Ray raced off to the one place he knew Megabyte would be. And where he was, Mouse would probably be: the Core Room.

"What's happening?" demanded Megabyte.

The sounds of the CPU troops were heard outside the Core Room.

"That would be the sound of you losing," said Matrix from behind Megabyte.

He turned to face Matrix and when he did a fierce blow to the jaw met Megabyte, then another and another. This was Matrix's time for retribution. He was about to deal another blow to Megabyte when the virus grabbed his fist and twisted it. Matrix gritted his teeth against the pain. Megabyte grabbed Matrix by the neck and lifted him off his feet, then he rammed his metal fist into the renegade's stomach over and over again. Matrix took the full blows, the air in his lungs wanting to escape with each punch. Once he was finished, Megabyte threw Matrix across the room and marched toward the Gateway Command.

"Matrix!" shouted AndrAIa. She disconnected herself from the exo-suit and rushed to her fallen lover.

Bob and Dot were working feverishly at the control panel, trying to shut down the portal. Nothing was working. Megabyte's codes were unbreakable. From the side, Megabyte's tentacles rushed toward them and infected the control panel. It lit up in a small burst of light and sparks as it short-circuited. Now there was no way to turn off the Gateway.

"Glitch: containment barrier," Bob commanded. A pulse of light shot from Glitch and surrounded Megabyte in a cubical force field. He pounded on it ferociously, striking it with his giant claws. He was effectively contained. At least, that's what it seemed like.

Bob stepped toward him cautiously. "Looks like we've got you caged, Megabyte, just like the animal you are."

"Wouldn't you like to think so, Guardian."

One of Megabyte's infection tentacles was unleashed from his arm and attached itself to a wall of the container. He sent an energy pulse through the pipe and into the energy barrier, causing an overload. The resulting explosion knocked Bob back several feet and into the control panel with such force it knocked it over. Dot knelt beside him to try to help him back to his feet. It seemed inevitable that Megabyte would win. Then something strange started to happen. The room shook and the portal the Gateway had opened was fluctuating. Sparks of electricity wound all around the giant ring, and the portal was destabilizing.

"What's happening to my portal?" yelled Megabyte in anger.

* * *

Kevin was ripped away into the unknown void of virtual reality. He felt as if he were being peeled off the surface of the Earth like a sticker. His senses were ablaze. All around him was the sound of crackling electrical energy so loud it hurt his ears. It felt like he were being split in half by a bolt of lightning, but he felt no pain. He wasn't sure if his eyes were open or closed. Either way, there was an eerie, nauseating feeling as if he were free falling through the air. A streak of light shot passed him. It looked almost like a comet, but it wasn't. He was certain of that.

Kevin saw that he was flying with great speed through a dark room that seemed to be as infinite as outer space. All around him were geometrical solids. Some were spheres that looked like silver foam bubbles and others that were cubes and rectangular prisms. He saw one of those shooting stars fly into one portal, and it abruptly closed.

 _Could this be the very infrastructure of the Internet?_ he asked himself.

It was a breathtaking sight to behold. It was then Kevin noticed that he himself was headed toward one of those portals. He wasn't sure what waited for him on the other side, but he mentally braced himself when he entered the sphere.

He was now in a long tunnel of orange and yellow with violet colored rectangular prisms arranged in concentric circles along the inner surface of the passage. He seemed to gain speed as he raced through the vortex. Then he felt himself thrown clear of the tunnel.

The portal exploded in a burst of white light and electricity, throwing what appeared to be a sprite in a pressure suit clear of the Gateway. Megabyte, who had been too close to the portal when it exploded, was violently thrust back several feet and knocked offline.

"What just happened?" asked Dot.

"A miracle?" said Bob, responding to the question.

Matrix slowly rose to his feet with the help of AndrAIa, with his hand over his stomach.

Mouse disconnected from her suit as the CPUs had control over the remaining infected.

They also took Megabyte into custody. "He's still processing," said one CPU.

"What do you want to do with him?"

"Bob?" asked Mouse.

"Take him to the brig. We'll figure out what to do with him later."

"Set up a level twelve security field with a negative feedback setting around the chamber. I don't want him gettin' out," ordered Mouse.

"Understood, ma'am," said the CPU binome.

A team took him into custody and placed him in a tube-like containment stretcher.

Bob approached the being that had been thrown out of the Gateway when the portal exploded. The shaded faceplate obscured its face. It was lying on its back, evidently rendered unconscious from the force of his ejection from the portal.

"Someone get a diagnostic team in here," called Bob. "Glitch: medical scanner."

The keytool's circular face expanded and displayed readings on the creature. "This doesn't make any sense," Bob said.

"What is it, Bob?" asked Dot.

"I don't know," he said. "Glitch can't seem to get a clear scan. He's having trouble getting a code lock on it."

Phong and Ray appeared through the doorway on Ray's surfboard. Hack and Slash followed with Enzo in front of them.

"Is... is he gone?" asked Hack.

"Yeah, guys, he's gone," said Dot. "You can come back in now."

Ray said to Mouse, "Sorry I'm late. We ran into a little jam back there in the main hall. Did I miss anything?"

"Not much, Ray darlin'. If you don't count this," was her reply.

"Phong," Enzo said, "are you still processing?"

"Yes, my child. I have been restored to my full energy. Ray found me in a corridor near the War Room. He was able to bring me here."

Ray looked the traveler over. "Where'd it come from?"

"Through the Gateway Command," said Bob. "Something weird happened to the portal Megabyte made. It started to destabilize, then this thing came through."

"Is it a Web Rider from the Web?" asked Matrix.

"I don't think so," said Ray. "I've never seen a Web Rider look like this."

"Me either," said Bob.

"Supercool," said Enzo. "Let's wake him up."

"Hold on, Little Sparky," said AndrAIa, "we don't know what this thing is, and even if we did know how to get it..."

They heard it groan within its helmet. Then it moved, startling the others.

"Ah! It's still alive!" screamed Hack and Slash in unison.

"Would you two calm down," said Dot, annoyed.

Bob tried to communicate with it. "I am Guardian 452 of Mainframe. Can you understand me?"

The traveler managed to get on all fours, then to his knees. He reached up and twisted a knob on the side of the helmet, and they heard the sound of releasing pressure. The helmet came off and revealed a young man. He looked like he was v.2.6 or 2.7. He was still dazed from his journey, and he took in a deep breath and instantly collected himself. Kevin looked around at the people surrounding him.

"Am ― am I dreaming?"

Phong placed a hand on Kevin's shoulder. "Do not worry, my son. Everything will be fine."

His eyes grew wide for a moment, then he passed out.

"Nice going, Phong. You killed him," said Enzo.


	6. CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5: Analysis

Kevin lay unconscious on the medical bed. He still had on his suit, as they had been afraid to remove it, thinking it might be important to his physiology. A vidwindow displayed his vital signs.

"This is very unusual," said Phong. "Very unusual indeed."

"What is it, Phong?" asked Dot.

Bob, Dot, Matrix, AndrAIa, and young Enzo were in the room listening to him. This unexpected traveler had just saved all of them and a great many other lives. They owed him a lot of thanks. But who was he? That was the question on everybody's mind.

"His code structure is unlike anything we have in our records," Phong explained. "I have never seen such a thing before."

"Glitch couldn't get a clear scan either," Bob said.

"So that means the Supercomputer wouldn't even know who he is," stated AndrAIa.

"Even stranger, my children, this man has no format!" Phong exclaimed. "I am detecting no icon or PID codes."

"But nothing like that can exist in the Net, or the Web for that matter," Dot said.

"While this might be true, my child, we must accept the evidence presented to us. It is obvious that this being is not a sprite."

"Is he a virus?" asked Matrix.

"How can he be a virus?" asked young Enzo. "How can he be anything if he doesn't have a format?"

"The young one is right. The fact is, this being, whoever he is, is unlike anything that we have ever encountered before in the Net," Phong stated.

"All the more reason to delete it right now," said Matrix.

"Matrix, we can't," said AndrAIa. "He just stopped Megabyte from bringing an army of Web Creatures into Mainframe."

"AndrAIa's right," said young Enzo. "The guy just saved all our bitmaps. We can't delete him because we don't know who he is."

"So what do we do with him?" asked Bob.

"It is Dot's decision," said Phong.

The thought hard for a few nanoseconds. "Can you wake him up, Phong?" she asked finally.

"I believe so. I will need to make a proper stimulant to bring him around."

"When you get him awake, we'll question him. Until we figure out where he came from no one is to go near him." Dot walked over to the glass container holding the null that was Welman Matrix. "What about Dad, Phong?" asked Dot.

"Welman is resting for the time being, my child. But his nullsuit is being disinfected as we speak, and he should be back up and around within the cycle."

"Then it's decided," said Bob, "we keep him here until we can run some more tests."

"I will stay with him," said Phong. They all nodded and started to leave, but then Phong stopped them. "Wait, my children." They all stopped and looked at him. "Perhaps it is best that I tell you who this man really is."

"You know him, Phong?" asked Dot.

"Not personally. But I do know where he comes from. You will not find an ID file on him anywhere in the Net. He is a creature that has never before been seen in our world. He is... a user."

They all stared at him, wondering if his memory files were corrupted.

"Phong, what are you talking about?" asked Bob.

He turned and opened a vidwindow. It displayed an energy indicator that looked like a sound bar. It rose and dropped sharply in a rhythmic pattern.

"This is the normal energy output of the Gateway Command when a portal is active," Phong explained. The image suddenly changed to a different indicator, it looked the same as the other. "Now watch. This is what happened to the Gateway Command's energy patterns when our friend here came through."

The bar suddenly shifted its energy spikes all the way to the center where they shot up and down rapidly. Then it all went down, indicating the Gateway shutdown.

"That's impossible, Phong," said Bob. "The system core can't even channel that much energy. It's just not possible."

"What does it mean, Bob?" asked young Enzo.

"Phong can explain it better than I can," he said.

"I am not the expert your father is, my son, but the massive amount of energy channeled by the Gateway shows that this man must have come from somewhere outside cyberspace."

"So this thing could be a user!" said Matrix. "We should delete him now, before he wakes up."

"Hold on, Matrix," said Bob, "we don't know anything about him."

"What's there to know? He's a user. In games he tries to delete us and nullify the system."

"We have only encountered the user in the form of games, my son. This is the true representation of the user as he really is," said Phong

"What's the difference? A user's a user. Not a sprite and not a virus, but a user, the most dangerous thing we know of."

"I still think we should wait and meet him when he wakes up. There's no telling what we could learn from him," suggested AndrAIa.

"How can you say that after what we've been through in the games? Well, you can talk to him all you want. I don't care." He turned and marched out the door with repressed rage.

"Sparky, don't be like this," beckoned AndrAIa. But the door had already closed and Matrix was gone. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay, AndrAIa. We understand," said Bob.

"We spent most of our lives fighting the user in the games to get home. It still hasn't left him. I don't think it ever will."

"We know, AndrAIa," said Dot. "This is difficult for him. It's not his fault."

"I'd better find him and calm him down before he blows something up," she said, and she walked out after Matrix.

"I think Matrix might have a point, Phong," said Bob. "I mean, we really don't know what he'll do when he wakes up."

"True. But he doesn't seem very hostile to me." Phong said, looking at Kevin. "We need to find a way to get this suit off so I can examine his physiology."

Young Enzo stepped up and made his own observation. "I wonder what he looks like under this suit. Maybe he's some sort of energy-sucking vampire with tentacles and slime and..."

"Enzo! Calm down, my son," urged Phong. "We must first remove the suit to make an observation. But as to how, I do not know."

Enzo looked and saw that on the center of the breastplate was a metal dial half exposed under a panel of plastic.

"How about this?" he asked.

He reached and turned the dial with his finger. The others warned him to stop, but he had already turned it a full 180 degrees. They heard the release of pressure within the suit. Then the breastplate unsnapped and so did the sleeves and the leggings. It was all made separately; each part was made to come apart to make it easy to get into and out of.

"Wow. Supercool," said the young sprite.

Phong gently lifted Kevin's right arm and removed the sleeve. It slid right out and plopped back onto the table beside his body. It was just an arm, a regular arm, with five digits on the hand.

"He's just like us," Dot said in amazement.

He continued to remove the parts of the suit until it was completely off the user. They saw that he was just like them. He had two legs, two arms, ten fingers, ten toes, a head, hair, and he seemed to be sprite-like in every way. His skin color was irregular, though, a light peach color, and his hair was just a simple brown.

"I don't understand. How can the users look like us?" asked Bob.

"I do not know the answer, my son. Although we may look alike, sprite and user must be biologically different. The complexity of his code proves that."

"So we're not completely the same?" asked Enzo, confused.

"Yes, my child. The best thing to do would be to wake him and ask him what he knows."

* * *

AndrAIa came to the door to the War Room. She entered her four-digit access code and it opened. She stepped in and saw Matrix standing over the large floor map of Mainframe. He had a look of mixed feelings on his face. Part of it was hate, and the other was confusion, regret, and sadness. She made her way down the stairs and stood next to him. She put her arm around his shoulder and leaned her head on his arm. He let out a heavy sigh but otherwise remained silent.

"I know how you feel. We went through the same things together, Enzo."

"I know you did," he said solemnly. "I wouldn't have made it without you, AndrAIa."

He turned to face her. The expression on his face broke her core-com. He was in pain, and as much as he tried to hide it he couldn't hide it from her.

He held her with both hands by the hips, and she took his face in her hands.

"Whatever happens we'll face together like we did, like we always will."

"I can't go through that again."

"I know. And we won't."

"I love you, AndrAIa," said Matrix softly.

They drew closer and kissed, and for an instant Matrix felt free again, a feeling only she could bring to him and he to her.

Matrix and AndrAIa broke off abruptly when vidwindow opened with Dot on the other end.

"Sorry to interrupt you two," she said, slightly embarrassed, "Phong is going to wake up the user. We need you in the med lab."

"We're on our way, Dot," responded AndrAIa. The vidwindow closed. "Duty calls, lover," she said.

He nodded and they started for the med lab hand in hand.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the cellblock, Megabyte was brooding in his cell. He remained silent as Mouse continued to make modifications to the containment field from the control station, trying to think of everything that Megabyte could do to get free. Ray and a squad of CPUs were in the room just in case he got out while Mouse was working.

"What do you think Bob's going to do with him?" asked Ray.

"Don't know. I'm just making sure he doesn't get out again. Thinkin' of everything isn't something that's easy when it comes to Megabyte."

Mouse seemed tense, and Ray saw it, so he tried to change the subject. "Did you hear what Phong said about that guy that came through the Gateway?"

"Who is he?" she asked.

"Phong seems to think he's a user. An actual user."

Megabyte's interest was perked so he listened carefully, not arousing any suspicion that he was eavesdropping.

"Phong actually thinks that?"

"That's what I heard when I passed the med lab on my way here. It has something to do with the Gateway. Evidently something screwy happened."

"Well, I don't know whether or not he's a user, but if he is, I don't think he's going to be very welcome in Mainframe."

There was silence for a few nanos, then Ray spoke again. "I'm sorry I wasn't around for the wedding."

"You didn't miss much."

Ray had decided to remain behind in Kilroy 2, the system he and Mouse had been investigating for signs of Hexadecimal's code. The system was still having trouble adjusting to the chaos virus's "cleansing." He wanted to make sure something wouldn't go haywire after they left. He was rubbish at weddings, anyway. Mouse had given him the lowdown on what had happened. In his opinion, there was no punishment suitable for Megabyte. The scope of what he'd done was beyond anything he'd ever heard of a virus doing.

Ray looked over at Megabyte still sitting down on the bench protruding from the wall of his cell. "And what about you, chuckles? What do you have to say for yourself?" Megabyte remained silent. "What's the matter with him?" Ray asked.

"His ego. It's the biggest part of him."

"How much longer are these modifications going to take?"

"Just a few more microseconds, sugah. I've got to make sure that there's no chance he'll escape."

Ray thought for a moment. "This isn't going to mess with our dinner plans is it, love?"

Mouse tilted her eyes toward him slyly and smiled her mischievous smile.

* * *

Phong was holding an injection gun in his hand when Matrix and AndrAIa walked into the room. Both Dot and Bob noticed that Matrix seemed calmer, more collected.

"I have made this serum to wake him up," Phong said. "With any luck, we will be able to ask him the questions we need answered."

He held the injector to Kevin's arm and they heard the sound of pressure from the gun force the medication into the user's body.

They waited a few nanos to see if the serum would wake him up, but he didn't.

"What's the problem, Phong?" asked Bob.

"Perhaps the serum doesn't have any affect on users," he responded.

They looked at his vital signs. There was no change, no indication that the serum was having any negative effects, yet he wasn't waking up.

"Maybe we need to give it a little time, Phong," suggested AndrAIa.

"Perhaps you are correct. We have other important business to attend to."

"Mega crash," said Young Enzo. "What a bummer."

They all decided to leave the room and wait and try again later.

But just as they left, Kevin's hand twitched. Then his feet moved. Soon, his eyes fluttered and he awoke fully. At first he panicked and shot straight up. He looked around the room and tried to make sense of where he was. The room he was in looked strange somehow. It just didn't seem real, as he knew it. Was it something about the color, the design itself, the lighting? He couldn't explain it. Then, he realized it.

"It works," he said quietly at first. Then he shouted in excitement, "It works! We did it!" He let out a proud laugh and sat up on the bed.

Kevin made the obvious observation that he was in some sort of medical lab. He saw lab equipment and what seemed to be X-rays of his skull as well as a very accurate microcellular scan of his brain. What startled him the most was the sight of a floating screen above his head. It seemed to display his vital signs. He removed the heart sensors on his chest and the sensors on his head. The pulsating lines on the floating screen flat-lined. So he was in a medical facility. On the top of the screen he saw the word VIDWINDOW.

"What's a vidwindow?" he asked himself aloud.

He got to his feet and found his shirt on the back of a chair. He put it on and saw that his suit was laid out on the table in front of him. Immediately, he found the equipment backpack, unlocked the latches, and opened the lid. Inside were devices that had been designed for the purpose of operating in a virtual environment. There was an experimental laser weapon, a specially designed handheld computer, and a scanning device. He had no other clothes except his undergarments, so he began to reassemble the spacesuit onto his body. He hid his equipment inside the zipper compartments on his suit and checked his wrist to find the retrieval module still intact and operating. All he would have to do to call for his extraction would be to press and hold the face of the module for five seconds.

Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a mirror. He turned his head fully toward it and stared, dumbfounded. The person staring back at him was not his reflection. Kevin approached the mirror and gave his reflection a good look-over. It was his face, he knew, but it wasn't his reflection. It was different, different the same way as the rest of the room. He still looked human, but it was as if he were staring at an image generated by a computer screen.

He touched his face with his hands, felt of his hair, rubbed his eyes to see if he was seeing right. He had expected some sort of change, but not like this. The textures were still the same, his skin still felt like his skin, dry but smooth, and his brown hair still felt like his hair, soft and long. He still looked like he did when he left the lab; the features had not changed, just the way they looked.

He finished in the lab and made for the door. It was vacuum sealed and parted like an elevator door. He saw an adjoining hallway and stepped out of the med lab.

The rest of the building looked just like the room he had just come from.

He wandered through the hallways until he came to one large grand hallway. Kevin marveled at the structure he was in. It was certainly large, he thought. The cybernaut walked over to a wall and felt of the material it was made of. It felt like marble, the smoothness of the surface, the way it sounded when he hit it lightly with his knuckles; it was unmistakable that the material he was feeling of was marble, but there was something else. There was some quality that made it feel different from the marble he knew. It was the same thing he noticed about the room and about his reflection. It was all as if he were looking through a computer screen.

He stepped back and marveled at the rest of the structure, completely unaware of the two standing behind him.

"Hi," said Enzo.

Kevin turned around, startled. Looking right at him was a small boy with green skin and violet eyes. He wore a baseball shirt that said '01' on the front and a red baseball cap. Beside him was a rather large red and yellow dog that didn't hesitate to show his teeth and give a slight growl. Kevin simply cocked his head slightly to the right, intrigued at the pair. Added to that, he was relieved that he spoke English.

"I'm just a little confused at the moment, that's all," Kevin responded. "What's your name?"

"I'm Enzo. This is Frisket." He patted the dog on the head.

"Enzo, I'm Kevin Sawyer. Nice to meet you." Kevin extended his hand for a handshake and the little boy responded by taking his hand and shaking it happily. Kevin found this to be quite stress reducing. When he tried to pet Frisket, the dog curled his lips and showed his teeth again and elicited a growl. Kevin drew his hand away.

"Easy, Frisket," said Enzo. The dog calmed down.

"That's a pretty big dog. What kind is he?"

"He's feral."

"Aren't you a little young to be handling a dog like that?" asked Kevin.

"I'm 1.0. Besides, I've known Frisket for a long time, since he was just a pup."

Kevin was a little confused when he said he was 1.0. Then Kevin noticed his green skin again.

"You have green skin," he said, curious.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, it's not something I see every day. You see, there aren't any green people where I'm from. I didn't mean to offend you."

"It's okay, you didn't. I'm glad to see that you woke up. Phong's injection must have worked. We weren't sure if we could wake you up."

"Who's Phong?" asked Kevin.

Meanwhile, the three began walking together down the main hall.

"Phong's the sprite that helps Dot keep the Principal Office running. Dot's my sister."

"Is that what this building is called? The Principal Office?"

"Yeah. I think you saw Phong earlier when you came through the Gateway. Before you passed out."

"You saw me?"

"Yeah, and some of my friends, too."

That meant that what he had seen earlier wasn't an illusion. There were other people here like this boy. Maybe they could help him complete his mission. But how could people like Enzo exist in cyberspace?

"We really wanted to meet you to see if it was true."

"To see if what was true?" he asked.

"If you were a user," responded Enzo.

"Well," Kevin responded, "I'm really a scientist. But you are correct, I am a user."

"Alphanumeric! Supercool. Dot and Phong and the others will want to talk to you! Then me, I have some really important questions to ask you, okay?"

The boy was going so fast that Kevin couldn't make heads or tales of what he was talking about. "Uh, okay."

"Perfect. I'll take you to the War Room. This way."

The boy eagerly led the way to the War Room with the Virtual Man closely following.


	7. CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6: First Meetings

Enzo led Kevin through another corridor. Now the Principal Office started to look more like a military installation. Where the young boy was leading him, Sawyer had no idea. Enzo had said something about a war room, which made Kevin think that he had arrived at a bad time. If he had arrived in the middle of a war, it could make things very difficult for his mission.

They came to a door at the end of a corridor. Enzo entered an access code of some kind, and the door opened. When they stepped inside Kevin immediately noticed that he was in some sort of command center.

"This is the War Room," said Enzo.

Kevin saw that the room was occupied by short beings that seemed to be made of square blocks. They had only one eye and wore either lab coats or military uniforms. There was another species of this curious race in the room that looked round like a soccer ball.

Kevin asked, "What are those things?"

"They're binomes," said Enzo.

Sawyer studied them curiously for a moment. "How do they stay put together?" he asked. Kevin noticed that the sections of the box type didn't seem to be attached to one another. Instead, they slightly floated one atop the other.

"Sometimes they don't. You should see them when they get scared." He pointed to a woman standing next to a shorter sprite on the other side of the room.

The woman was attractive and seemed to resemble a mermaid. She had aquamarine hair and golden colored skin. There were patches of what looked like fish scales on her arms and small fins extending a few inches up her forearm from her wrists.

The other sprite reminded Kevin of a Chinese monk with his long beard and tiny spectacles, although, this man had a box for a torso and no legs. His head was oddly shaped, and his neck was a long, thin pipe.

Kevin wondered if all creatures in virtual reality were as diverse in nature.

"That's AndrAIa over there, she's a game sprite. Phong's the one next to her."

"That's your sister?" asked Sawyer, seeing that they looked nothing alike.

"AndrAIa? No, she's my brother's girlfriend. Dot must be in her office. Hold on a nano, I'll get her."

The boy left Kevin's side and entered his sister's office adjacent to the War Room. Bob and Matrix were inside talking with Dot about the user, and from volume of the discussion, it was a heated debate.

"I don't like not having him under guard," said Matrix. "He could be dangerous."

"Guys," said Enzo, intruding on their conversation.

"We don't know that, Matrix," Bob said. "It might not look so good if he were to wake up with a gun aimed at him."

"Guys," said Enzo again, the others obviously still not aware of his presence.

"Better safe than sorry," replied the renegade, a little more forcefully.

"This is getting us nowhere," said Dot. "We need to be objective about this. This is unlike anything that's happened to us before. Now, I agree with Matrix that we need to be cautious. On the other hand, first impressions are everything, so I'll assign a light security detail to guard the med lab until he regains consciousness. If he's not here to cause trouble, then we can assume we have nothing to worry about."

"What if he is here to make trouble?" asked Matrix.

"Guys!" said Enzo, this time making his presence known. They all looked at him.

"Kid, can't you go bug somebody else?" asked Matrix, annoyed at his younger self. "We're trying to talk in here."

"I know, but there's someone outside I think you need to meet."

* * *

Kevin tried to think out his next move. It was obvious that he should make contact, but how to go about it was the problem. Should he just march up and introduce himself? This was first contact with another race; it had to go just right. One wrong move could cause things to blow up in his face.

He decided it was best to introduce himself.

"Phong, what will happen to the user if Dot decides he's too dangerous to have around?" asked AndrAIa.

"I do not know, my child," replied the wise sprite. "Dot understands the severity of the situation. I believe that she will choose the right course of action."

"But think of what it will mean, Phong," said AndrAIa. "Actual contact with the user. Imagine all the things we could learn."

"Yes, it is a great discovery we have made. But we must ask ourselves if it is a discovery that the rest of the Net is ready to hear of. There are many beliefs about the nature of the user. What we learn in the cycles to come may reshape the way we view our world."

"I wonder what it's like where he's from," said AndrAIa.

"Well, it would be kind of hard for me to explain," came a voice from behind them.

They turned and saw the user standing right in front of them.

"It's you!" said AndrAIa, startled.

"Sorry if I startled you," said Kevin sincerely. "I'm Kevin ―"

Kevin was about to introduce himself when he felt the business end of a gun press at his back and the cocking of a hammer.

"Move and I'll delete you," said the person behind him.

The voice was demanding, gruff. He meant what he said. Kevin stood absolutely still, his face expressionless. It seemed like first contact wasn't going to blow up in his face after all. It was going to blow through his back.

"Matrix, put Gun down. Kevin's cool," came Enzo's voice.

"How do you know? He's a user," said Matrix in the same tone as before.

"I'm not going to harm anyone," said Kevin. "I'm on a mission of peaceful exploration."

"Yeah, right," said Matrix, pushing the barrel harder into his back.

"I guess there's no point in saying that I come in peace," Kevin said.

"Easy, Matrix," said Bob, "don't do anything rash."

Matrix took the gun off Kevin's back and returned it to his leg holster. Kevin turned to face his assailant. Immediately, he wished he hadn't. He was huge, seven feet tall, broad shouldered, barrel-chested, and all muscle. In place of his right eye was a gold electronic replacement that glowed a red M in the center. The other eye was violet and his skin was green.

The sheer dimensions of this man would make almost any human look puny in comparison. He wondered if this was Enzo's big, big brother.

"Kevin, are you all right?" asked Enzo.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little overwhelmed. It's not every day I see the Jolly Green Giant packing iron," said Kevin.

Matrix gritted his teeth and frowned at Kevin. Then he glared at Enzo. "What were you thinking bringing him down here?"

"You said you wanted to meet him. I met him in the main hall."

"You still shouldn't have brought him here. He could be dangerous," Matrix scorned his younger brother.

"Matrix," said Bob, "don't be so hard on him. He was only trying to help."

"And I can assure you that I am no threat," said Kevin, putting his hands down. "I'm not here to harm anyone."

"Like we can really believe what you say," said Matrix.

"Well, you are the one holding the gun, so I guess you can believe what you want to," Kevin said.

"Matrix," said AndrAIa, "calm down." She came and stood beside Matrix and took his hand in hers. He instantly calmed down.

Kevin noticed that he was surrounded by people who were giving him looks of suspicion and curiosity.

Phong stepped forward first. "Greetings, Kevin, is it?"

"Yes," said the scientist, turning to Phong. "I'm Dr. Kevin Sawyer, United States Defense Department." They exchanged handshakes. The feeling of awkwardness was growing within Kevin, and it made him uncomfortable.

"He's a scientist, Phong," clarified Enzo.

"I see. I imagine that you have many questions, Doctor."

"Yes, I do," said Kevin. "This is the first time any human has traveled physically into cyberspace. If I've caused any trouble, sir, I apologize."

"There is no apology necessary. In fact, we owe you a debt of gratitude. We are very curious about you, Dr. Sawyer, as you can see," said Phong.

"And I am very curious about you as well. However, I would like to know just where I am."

"You mean you don't know?" asked Bob.

"Not really. My superiors sent me down here with little to go on. I'm sort of confused."

"Perhaps, then, we can clear the mist for you, Doctor," Phong said.

* * *

The large double doors opened and they stepped out into the open. What Kevin saw was beyond anything he had ever imagined. It was a city, a thriving metropolis with people and flying cars, floating billboards, restaurants, and people flying overhead on what looked like a pair of hovering disks. Green grass, a blue sky with clouds but no sun. It was absolutely astounding.

"You are in the system of Mainframe," announced Phong.

The whole scene was incredible. The entire world around him looked as if he were looking through a computer screen. Absolutely everything was made of energy.

"This is incredible. Is every computer system like this?" asked Kevin.

"Almost," said Bob. "There are a lot of systems out on the Net, and all of them are different."

"This has to be the greatest discovery of the century!" the scientist exclaimed.

"Discovery?" asked AndrAIa. "You mean you didn't know this was here before?"

"No," said Kevin. "No human being has ever seen what actually goes on inside a computer. We'd have never even guessed that something like this could exist." Kevin paused a few moments to fully absorb the scene into his mind.

"So it's true then?" asked Dot. "You are a user."

"In your terms, yes, I am," he said solemnly.

They all looked around at each other. Dot was more than unsettled at this prospect. He was a user, and he was really in Mainframe, the real thing. What were they going to do, help him? How could they? Could they even? Thousands of questions ran through her mind about this mysterious traveler. Why was he here? What were his intentions? All this made her uneasy.

Bob saw the uneasiness in Dot and wanted to help relieve her tension, but he knew that he would only make it worse. As for Kevin, Bob wasn't sure how he felt. This was obviously the most important thing that had ever happened in the history of the known Net. There were so many questions to ask, so much to learn and explore now. He could finally find the answers he had been seeking for so long. Could this really be happening?

Matrix had only contempt for this being. His thoughts drifted back to his time in the games. All the users he had to confront and all the places he and AndrAIa had gone because of them dominated his memory. The terror began filling him again, a terror he hadn't felt since he came home. With it came the boiling rage that had become such a dominant part of his personality. It threatened to consume every line of code in his programming, and had it not been for AndrAIa, her comforting grace soothing his anger, he would have gone berserk.

AndrAIa, being her observational self, could tell that Kevin was no invader sent to conquer them. She sensed a sincere quality about him she found most reassuring. Like Bob, she was fascinated with what this meant to the future. She could feel the tension in her lover beside her. She took his hand in hers, realizing that the frightening uncertainty they both felt when they were trapped in the games was slowly returning to him. But she knew that together they would conquer it.

Phong turned to the blue-skinned sprite. Kevin noticed that he was wearing some type of uniform. "This is Bob, our Guardian," he said.

Bob stepped up to Kevin, and he extended his hand for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you," Kevin said in a slow tone.

"Same here," replied Bob.

"Bob is responsible for the protection of Mainframe. His function is to mend and defend," Phong explained.

"Am I considered a threat here?" asked Kevin seriously.

"That depends. Are you a threat?" asked Matrix in just the same manner.

"I'm only here temporarily," said Kevin. "My mission is one of extreme importance to my world. As soon as I'm done here, I'll move on."

"Why are you here?" asked Bob.

"I was sent here on a mission by my government," explained Kevin Sawyer. "I'm looking for a virus called Daemon." There was a reaction from all of them, Kevin noticed. "I take it that you've heard of it."

"What do you know about Daemon?" asked Dot.

"Very little, which is why I've been sent here. This is the system where a counteracting program originated from that supposedly destroyed the Daemon. I'm here to find out what happened."

"You created her," said Matrix. "You should know all that already."

"A user did create Daemon, but not me," Kevin explained. "I was also sent to find out who created Daemon as well."

"Well, you can relax," said Bob. "Daemon's deleted. We saw it happen."

"You actually saw Daemon destroyed?" asked Kevin.

"There was nothing left of her," said Enzo. "Hex totally offlined her."

"Come again?" said Kevin.

"It is, as we say, a long story," said Phong.

"Well, I do have time on my hands," said Kevin. "I would like to learn more about your world. That is, if that's agreeable with you."

"It is, Dr. Sawyer. You are free to stay in Mainframe as long as you wish," said Phong.

"Thank you. I appreciate your kindness," said Kevin.

Phong introduced everyone else. Dot Matrix was the of the system and Enzo's older sister. Matrix was also technically a Guardian, like Bob, but considered himself a renegade. AndrAIa was Matrix's girlfriend and a game sprite, although Kevin had no idea what that last part meant. Phong apparently assisted Dot with running things in the Principal Office. Kevin made the assumption that the Principal Office was the virtual representation of the central processing unit.

"If it's not too much trouble, could I ask for some clothing? I'm afraid I didn't come prepared," requested Kevin.

"Of course," said Phong. "Please, follow me."

They turned and started back inside the Principal Office. Kevin was excited at what he had found. Who would have imagined a parallel reality coexisting within the Internet with actual people, living, breathing, thinking people with lives and minds of their own? Where he had only expected to find an abstract world of electricity and data, he had instead stumbled into a universe not unlike his own. What a small world it really seemed.


	8. CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7: Question and Answer

AndrAIa walked into the med lab. They had given Kevin some new clothes in his size that he could wear and allowed him to change out of his jumpsuit in the med lab. He was fully dressed when she walked in. He had chosen casual attire: a navy blue cotton shirt, denim pants, and tennis shoes. He was buckling the snap on his watch when she came in.

"Is everything all right?" she asked in a kind voice.

"Yes, thank you. AndrAIa, right?"

"Yes," she said with a smile. She motioned to the guard outside the door that she would take it from here, and he left.

"I take it I'm under observation for the time I'm here," Kevin said as he sat down on the edge of the medical bed.

"It's just a small security precaution," she explained. "We're not sure if..."

"If I'm a threat to your home," he said plainly, finishing her sentence. "I understand. It's a security thing."

"I just came to see if you had settled in okay. I can go if you want."

"No, no, you're fine," said Kevin, hoping he hadn't offended her. "I mean, it's nice to know someone here doesn't consider me hostile. I didn't really set out to come here expecting to find actual living people." Several moments passed in silence when Kevin asked another question. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Kevin. Ask me anything."

"Why is everyone so tense around me? It's like I've committed some capital crime, and I'm being punished for it."

"You mean you don't know?" she asked.

"Know what?" asked Kevin. "I thought it was pretty obvious that I didn't know much at all."

Obviously, there was something about the users that the sprites didn't like very much. Kevin wanted to know what this was. Maybe if he knew what was so bad about the users he could help make amends.

"Maybe everyone should hear this," AndrAIa recommended.

"But I don't understand. What's so bad about the users?"

* * *

Bob stood outside the cell, looking in on Megabyte. Mouse was still there at the control station. Never had Bob felt an actual compulsion to delete anything in his life, but at this moment, as he let the anger rise within him, he felt like he could jump through the force field and delete Megabyte with his bare hands. This feeling hadn't existed before.

Just a few milliseconds ago he was trying to turn Megabyte into a sprite. He believed it could be done, that Megabyte could have been reprogrammed for good. It was now that he realized that no matter what he did, Megabyte would always be evil. What had happened in the Core Room proved that. The virus had done nothing but cause harm and death to everyone Bob cared for: Dixon, Dot, Matrix, everyone in Mainframe whom Bob had sworn to protect.

But as much as he wanted to blame Megabyte for everything, he couldn't. It had been Bob's idea from the start, his own little experiment. That was what hurt the most, that he could have ended it anytime he wanted. But he had to let it continue. It was his only chance to prove that he was right, his only chance to give Dixon's death some amount of meaning. The guilt he felt matched the intensity of his anger. Bob felt responsible for everything. He had failed his partner, keeping her murderer alive for his own personal project. The genesis of Megabyte had destroyed the Twin City and nullified thousands.

Now Megabyte had very nearly, if not successfully, trashed Bob's life and the life of the woman he loved the most. Bob had watched an hour of his life waste away in the Web, a victim of his own experiment gone out of control, while Dot was left alone to wage a war against the sinister virus. Enzo and AndrAIa were forced to abandon their childhood while only little sprites in order to survive in the games. All this could have been avoided if he had just stopped it at the beginning. How many innocents could have been save had he acted sooner?

 _This is your fault_ , he said to himself. _Now you're paying for it._

The murder of Dixon Green still haunted him even after all these hours. It was such an empty death, a death without meaning. He kept telling himself that the experiment was his way of giving her deletion some measure of purpose, that Hexadecimal was proof that he was right and Dixon didn't die for nothing. He wanted to believe that he was honoring the memories of the lives lost in the Twin City Explosion.

 _Where's the logic in honoring the fallen by letting the guilty run free?_ he asked himself.

He kept telling himself that he was trying to do something noble, something that, he hoped, would make the world a better place, but at what cost? His partner was murdered in front of him, an entire city was destroyed with countless lives nullified, and his life had been shockingly altered by his encounters in the Web. It felt like the weight of the Net was on his shoulders, but Bob still held on to his principles, his morals, the very things that governed his life. Bob would try again to turn Megabyte. If he failed, there was no telling what he would do.

Mouse spoke to him. "You gonna stand there all cycle?"

Bob glanced over at her. "I just can't help but feel that this is my fault. That because of me all of this is happening."

"Now don't you start that guilt trip stuff," said Mouse. "Dot's gotten plenty of it, and I'll be erased before you start with it too."

"But I am responsible, Mouse. I let Megabyte escape from the Supercomputer, and I allowed him to live. Now look at what's happened."

"Bob, there's nothing any of us could have done. Megabyte tricked us all."

"That's the thing. What if Dot does like the way I was? What if I've changed so much that she can't love me?"

"You are who you have always been: our Bob, the same good-natured, noble Guardian who would give his own code to save another. That's who you are, and that's the part of you Megabyte can never mimic even with Trojan horse abilities."

"Megabyte," Bob said in a low voice, not really addressing him. "Why did it have to turn out like this? Why couldn't I see it?"

"You can't blame yourself."

"Can't I?" he asked. "It was all because of me. I thought I could keep him and Hexadecimal under control, but I was wrong." He sighed heavily. "I doubted myself, Mouse. Even at the very end I doubted if I really was the right one."

"And nobody blames you for that. You above all people know how manipulative Megabyte is. But you still came back and saved everyone from a lot of grief, and you saved Dot from making a terrible mistake."

Images of the wedding flashed through his processor. He remembered the feeling of despair that filled him when he saw Dot standing next to his look-alike, preparing to marry him, how he felt when he thought he was actually the copy, when he thought he had lost Dot forever.

"But I was too late. Megabyte has already hurt her. Now she may never be able to love me again."

Mouse placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Are you just gonna give up?"

He paused a moment, then said, "I just don't know anymore."

* * *

Under guard, Kevin Sawyer was escorted back to the War Rom with AndrAIa.

Kevin wasn't sure what to expect, an inquiry or an interrogation. But something about AndrAIa told him that he could expect some measure of kindness in the following proceedings. They arrived at the door and she entered her access code. They entered, and the military escort took a position outside the door, weapon ready.

Everyone was there that he had met before, Dot, Matrix, Bob, and Phong. Enzo was not present, and Kevin could imagine that the little boy was disappointed about being left out of the conference.

"Ah, Dr. Sawyer. Good to see you again," said Phong. "I trust the clothes we provided are a correct fit?"

"Yes, thank you," replied Kevin, conducting himself now as a delegate. "I appreciate your hospitality."

"We have gathered here to exchange information, Doctor," he continued. "As we said before, we have many questions to ask you. Of course, you may ask us as many as you like as well."

"Thank you. I have several important questions myself."

"Concerning Daemon," said Dot, regarding the user with suspicion.

"Yes," he said, "concerning Daemon. But by all means, you go first."

"Okay, exactly what is your mission?" she asked, observing this mysterious traveler.

"I was sent here by my government with the mission of discovering what happened to the supervirus Daemon. My orders are to ascertain what it was that counteracted the virus's infection, and if I find that Daemon still exists, I'm supposed to destroy it."

"And you came to Mainframe because it's where the counteracting program originated from," filled in Bob.

"That's right. It was thought that the Daemon virus might still exist somewhere on the Net, waiting to be reintroduced again. So I was sent in to find the program that stopped it, and if I could, find the user that programmed Daemon. Then, once I've completed my objectives, I'm to return to my world and report to my superiors."

"And that's why you're here?" asked Matrix.

"Basically. I'm to explore this system, gather as much information as I can, then move on to the Pentagon supercomputer and figure out how Daemon's user managed to hack into the mainframe." He looked at the group. "Well, that's my side of the story. Now how about you tell me yours?"

Bob looked at Dot, then turned back to Kevin. "We encountered Daemon last minute," Bob began. "She was the most powerful virus we'd ever seen. We're not sure where she originally came from, but the first system she infected was the Supercomputer. She took over the Guardian Collective and basically neutralized the only defense we had," said Bob.

"The Supercomputer?" Kevin asked.

Bob found it strange having to give simple explanations to a user on such rudimentary matters. "It's the largest power base on the Net, the most powerful and secure system anywhere," Bob described. "It's where I come from. Surely you know about it."

"It sounds like you're describing the Pentagon supercomputer," said Kevin.

"What do you mean?" asked Dot.

"We weren't able to find out where Daemon originally came from either, but the first system that the virus was introduced into was the Pentagon computer system. So this Supercomputer you're talking about is the Pentagon mainframe. Incredible. But you said you stopped her."

"Hexadecimal did. We used the Gateway Command to disperse her along with a cure to counteract Daemon's infection," said Phong.

"I don't understand?" said Dr. Sawyer. "Who's Hexadecimal?"

"There was a virus that lived here named Hexadecimal," explained Dot. "When Daemon's virus began to crash the Net, Hex sacrificed herself to save us all. She became the 'counteracting program' you were sent to find. We dispersed her code to counteract Daemon's virus."

"A virus to fight a virus," said Kevin to himself, assimilating the information. He then turned back to Bob. "So Daemon is gone. Permanently?"

"Hex deleted her, completely wiped her out," said AndrAIa. "There was no trace of Daemon anywhere afterwards."

"And I assume this Hexadecimal was erased as well."

There was a short silence, then Bob broke it. "Yes, that's right."

"That's unfortunate," said the user in a subtle voice.

Bob studied his expression to find whether he was genuinely sorry for the loss of life or sorry he had lost a possible new weapon. Neither seemed to register.

"So then half my mission is already over," said Dr. Kevin Sawyer.

"Good," said Matrix. "Then you can leave."

Kevin saw that there was a bitter resentment coming from Matrix. "Look, I don't know what I've done to offend you, but just give me a chance. Let me explore your culture while I'm here. If we get to know each other, we'll find our two peoples aren't very different."

Matrix angrily marched toward the user, and no restraint of AndrAIa could hold him back.

"I don't want to get to know you," said Matrix with dammed fury. "I know all I need to know about you and your kind. It was you who gave me this." He pointed to his electronic eye.

"I don't understand. How did users give you that?"

"Don't play with me," he said. "You can't really expect me to believe that you don't know about the games."

Kevin was stumped. "Games? You mean like computer games?"

"Sparky, he honestly doesn't understand," beckoned AndrAIa.

"Look, I don't know what grievances you hold against me, or my race," said Kevin Sawyer, "but all I'm asking for is an opportunity to understand this world. You must realize that we only see your world as electrons chasing each other through circuits. We never realized that there were living beings inside, or that our interactions were harmful."

"Harmful? Do you have any idea how many innocent lives you've nullified through the games? Do you?"

Kevin found himself at a loss for words. "I... I don't know what to say. I'm sorry."

"'Sorry' doesn't change the past," Matrix said. He swiftly brushed past Kevin and left the War Room.

"We apologize, Dr. Sawyer," said Phong. "Matrix has been through a great deal in his lifetime."

"Because of games?" he said slowly. "Sent by users?"

"Yes," said AndrAIa.

"I still don't understand."

From the skies above, the ominous system warning called out, "WARNING: INCOMING GAME. WARNING: INCOMING GAME." The skies darkened and the sound of electricity crackling echoed off the outer containment.

"What's happening?" asked Kevin.

"It's a game cube," said Bob. "Where's it landing, Phong?"

Phong looked at the vidwindows surrounding the sensor console. "It looks like it is going to land in Baudway."

"Then let's move," said Dot. They all rushed out the door of the War Room, leaving Sawyer behind.

"Is this what Matrix meant?" asked Kevin.

"I am afraid so, Doctor," was Phong's reply.

Kevin saw on the main view screen, a giant hole opening in the top of the system, like a vortex, and descending out of the hole was a purple colored rectangular prism the size of a skyscraper.

He turned and ran toward the Principal Office exit.

* * *

Matrix met the others at the entrance to the building.

"The game looks like it's going to land near the diner," said Matrix.

"We know," said Bob. "We don't have a lot of time. Come on."

Young Enzo, who had been waiting outside, asked if he could go.

"Enzo, I told you," said Dot, "games are dangerous. You stay right here."

They all decompressed their zip-boards and lifted off into the air, headed towards the descending game cube.

"Crash! She never lets me do anything," said Enzo to Frisket.

Kevin came running out of the Principal Office and saw that he was too late.

"Hey," came Enzo's voice. The little boy ran over to Kevin's side. "Don't tell me, they left you here too, huh?"

"I guess so. Your brother didn't exactly like having me around."

"Matrix is like that. Just give him a few cycles."

"Is there any way I can get to that game before it lands?" asked Kevin.

Enzo gave a clever smirk and looked up at the scientist. "I have just what you need."

* * *

From the air, Kevin had a fantastic view of Mainframe. It was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"After the game, I'll take you to the energy park," said Enzo. "You'll love it. We can do jet bowling and circuit racing, or anything you want."

Enzo was steering them toward the game cube landing site in his hover cart. Kevin guessed that it was the cyber equivalent to a dune buggy or go-cart, only it could fly.

"Maybe someday I'll be able to show you my world," said Kevin.

"Really? Could you?" asked the boy, excited.

"Maybe. It's amazing that a world like this could exist in front of us and we never knew that it existed."

"You mean the users don't know about us? That we even exist?"

"I'm afraid it's true, Enzo," replied Kevin. "Until I came here, I had no idea what it was really like. Now I know why your brother was so hostile towards me. It makes me wonder how everyone else here will react."

Enzo spotted the others and made a quick landing near them. The two got out and as they approached, Dot hastily walked up to her little brother.

"Enzo, I told you to stay put," said Dot scoldingly.

"I had to give Kevin a lift," said Enzo.

"What's he doing here?" asked Matrix gruffly.

"You said that users were responsible for claiming lives in games. I want to help you."

"We don't need your help," he said.

"Too late," said Bob. "We've got it."

Just as Bob finished his sentence, the game cube landed and engulfed them all.

* * *

In G-Prime, the viral binomes that avoided capture gathered where their hideout had been before Bob and the others had raided them out.

"We're in big trouble. When the boss gets out..."

"If he gets out," interrupted one of the other binomes.

"Oh, he vill get out," said Herr Doktor, Megabyte's top scientist. "Vee must take action."

His German accent filled the ears of Megabyte's loyal troops.

"But how? What can we do?"

"Vee must attack zee Principal Office in order to rescue our dear commander."

The binomes muttered among themselves, thinking that this plan was crazy. "Do you vant to live under the control of the CPUs?"

"NO!" they all said.

"Do you vant respect and power?"

"YES!"

"Was it not our leader that promised us these things? Did he not give them to us?"

"YES! YES!" shouted the crowd more energetically.

"Then let's go rescue our deliverer and show zem how powerful he has made us!"

They all shouted in cheer and piled into what ABCs they had left.

* * *

Mouse entered the War Room. She had been informed that a game cube just landed in Baudway Sector.

"What's our status?" she demanded.

A CPU troop gave her what they knew. "Visual confirmation shows we have seven defenders in the game."

"Seven?"

Ray stepped over to her. "Looks like that user decided to join them, and Enzo and Frisket are in there too."

She paused and thought things over. "What class is it?" she asked.

Specky, the lab tech that always worked in the War Room, responded. "Sensors show that is a Level Two, Class B."

"Just another average game," said Ray.

"Not really. Havin' two users in a game don't exactly ease my mind."

They turned and looked at the game cube on the main vidwindow. Mouse couldn't help but feel a mixed sensation of fear and dread as she watched and waited.


	9. CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8: The Game Begins

"Glitch: game stats," Bob commanded. The keytool began to make computations and display the data.

Where Mainframe had once been, a whole different scene now lay before them. They were on a desolate setting in a small ravine. The sky was a light green color and dotted with streaks of purple clouds. A large gas giant with three sets of rings filled most of the sky above. This game evidently took place on an alien moon.

Kevin was dismayed at what had just taken place. "What just happened?" he asked. "Where are we?"

"We're in a game, Kevin," explained Enzo.

"And this one's new," said Bob. "We're on an alien moon in a game called 'Galactic Conquest.' The user is out to destroy a mystic device that can defeat his fleet of starships."

"So what do we have to do?" asked Dot.

"We either take out the user before he gets to the device or activate it before he destroys it."

"Seems simple enough. What is there to stop the user?" asked AndrAIa.

"This moon is filled with creatures like giant Venus fly traps, and living tar pits."

"Sounds pleasant," said Dot with a deliberate tone of sarcasm.

"Alright, let's do it," said Enzo excitedly. "REBOOT!" He tapped his icon on his hat, and, in a flash of light, he changed into a little green man about two feet tall with three eyes, three fingers, and two antenna on his head. His clothes had changed into a sky blue jumpsuit. "Ah, man."

"What just happened to him?" asked Kevin, amazed and confused at the same time.

"It is called rebooting," AndrAIa explained. "It downloads useful tools and skills into your code for use in a game."

"Here, Kevin. Watch us," said Bob. He nodded to Dot and the others.

Just as young Enzo had done, they said the word 'reboot' while tapping their icons twice. Bob became just like young Enzo, another green man, but he retained his size. Matrix rebooted similarly.

The two women rebooted with light violet skin, auburn hair, and green tops, skirts, and boots with their stomachs exposed.

Frisket had turned into some sort of slimy, slug-like creature.

Kevin, of course, couldn't reboot with the others. He didn't have an icon.

"Well, reboot," commanded Matrix.

"He can't, Matrix," observed Dot. "He doesn't have an icon."

"What does an icon do exactly?" asked Kevin.

"We don't have time to explain," said Bob. "We need to get to that weapon before the user does."

"Okay, then. Let's move out," said Matrix.

Kevin commenced to follow and Matrix stopped him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going with you. I can at least be of some help."

"How? You can't even reboot."

"Look. In case you haven't noticed, I'm stuck here too. I may not be able to reboot like you do, but I'm on a deadline at the moment. I need answers, and I'm not going to find them in here. So the faster we win this thing the quicker I can get home and out of your hair."

Bob nodded his head. "He's right, Matrix. We need all the help we can get."

Matrix grunted disdainfully as they turned and set out toward their objective with Kevin among their ranks.

* * *

Mouse and Ray were called to the War Room. A group of seven ABCs had positioned themselves outside the P.O. They were in standard attack formation.

"Am I seeing right? They actually look like they're gonna attack," asked Ray.

"Megabyte must have a great new influence for them to attack without orders," reasoned Phong.

"Should I sound battle stations?" asked Specky.

"Just raise the shields. They cannot cause much damage with just seven," Phong said.

"Just in case, have the gunners man their turrets," Mouse recommended.

Specky nodded and punched the shield commands on his console. The shields came up, and the CPU gunners reported to their stationed blasters.

Up in the sky, Herr Doktor watched as the shields surrounded the Principal Office. He chuckled to himself. "Zhey have no idea vhat is in store for zem. Let's show zem our new toys," commanded the mad scientist.

Immediately, the ABCs' cabins opened up, then they transformed into massive weapons. The vehicles had been redesigned to separate and recombine into huge energy cannons. They were all aimed at the Principle Office. Herr Doktor gave the command, and one of the vehicles opened fire. A bright beam of circulating blue and red energy burst from the cannon and collided with the shields. Sparks flew as it began to cut its way through the green barrier. The rest of the ABCs began firing their cannons as well.

The War Room shook with the force of the weapons fire.

"Report!" commanded Mouse.

"They're using some form of concentrated energy to drill through the shields," reported one CPU troop.

"Sir, ma'am, the shields are dropping fast. We can't take much more of this," said Specky.

"Looks like Megabyte's been busy upgrading his ABCs," said Ray.

"We must deploy all units, now!" urged Phong.

The CPU troops were fast in action. They scrambled all available vehicles to intercept the threat of the improved forces of Megabyte. He had evidently had a lot of time in the Web to think up some new weapon modifications. The gunners at their turrets, as well as the remote blasters and patrol cars, laid down heavy fire on the attackers. The shots fired from Mainframe's defense forces had no effect on the crafts.

They were protected by some form of advanced energy shielding.

"Shield failure in thirty-five nanoseconds," said Specky.

As the shots continued to reign on the ABCs their firing stopped. The cannons simply ceased firing.

"Why'd they stop?" asked Ray.

"Their shields," reckoned Mouse. "They must use up more juice than them cannons. Otherwise they'd be deleted by all the fire we've put down."

"Which means they have to stop firing in order to recharge their new weapons, or their shields would fail," finished Phong.

Mouse was quick to exploit this weakness. "Keep layin' fire on those ABCs until I can crack their shield codes."

"Yes, sir, ma'am," said Specky.

"And get the shields back up to full power. We're going to need them."

Suddenly, one of the ABCs opened fire again, the beam weakening the shields with every nanosecond. One CPU patrol unit opened fire on the ABC. Its shields had not fully recharged, leaving it open as a weakness. A few shots and the tank was destroyed, the cannon exploding in a fiery inferno, but the hull was still intact and it was flying toward the building.

"All stations, brace for impact," warned Mouse.

The flaming vehicle smashed into the shields in a huge explosion. The shields, in their corrupted state, collapsed against the force and sent strong power surges back through the Principle Office. Control stations overloaded in flashes of light as overloads erupted throughout the office.

In the cellblock, the containment field overloaded and fragmented from the energy feedback caused by the collision, allowing Megabyte to escape. The CPU troops in the room stood no chance against the merciless predator as he leaped from his cell and threw his infectious tentacles at them. Instantly, he drained them of energy. Using his Trojan horse abilities, Megabyte shifted into the form of one of the troops he had drained. Now it was time to put the rest of his plan into motion.

* * *

They reached the top of the canyon and surveyed the landscape. It was crimson red and mostly flat with strange, jagged rock formations protruding from the ground. They even saw some of those tar pits Bob talked about. Kevin curiously observed a red-skinned amphibious creature, a cross between a frog and a lizard, crawl past one of the pits. Without warning, a long scaly tentacle lashed out from the pit and snatched the frog up and retreated back into the tar.

 _Good lord_ , thought Kevin.

It was a depressing scene, even to Matrix. There was a large mountain ahead of them.

Kevin was holding something in his hand that continued to make a beeping sound.

"What are you doing, Kevin?" asked Enzo.

"This is a scanning device designed to function in cyberspace. I've been using it to scan this area. It's been getting energy readings from that mountain."

"So has Glitch," said Bob. "The weapon is in a cavern in that mountain. The entrance is halfway up the side."

"Then let's move it," said Matrix.

They continued their journey to the mountain.

"You know, it all seems so different on the other side of the screen," said Sawyer.

"How do you mean?" asked AndrAIa.

Suddenly, a blast of energy zipped by Kevin's face. Then more pulses came at them. They all scattered and dove behind different rock structures. Bob and Kevin were behind one. Across from them, five feet away, were AndrAIa and Dot. Another six feet behind them were Matrix, Frisket and Enzo.

"For one, it's a lot less deadly," he said to AndrAIa, responding to her question.

"It's the user. He's here," Bob said.

More blasts came and hit the side of the rocks they were behind. Kevin was able to peer around the side and see the user. He, too, was behind by a rock formation. He had black pants, a gold shirt, and curly brown hair. It didn't take Kevin long to figure out whom this character was based on.

"That's the user?" he asked, he turned to Bob. "Captain Kirk? He's the one shooting at us?"

"You know him?" asked Bob.

"He's a television character." Another shot collided with the side of the rock.

"How far is he from us?" asked Bob.

"He's maybe five yards behind us, hiding behind one of those rock formations on the left," said Kevin.

Bob peered around his side of the rock and saw the user. "I see him. Matrix," he called.

Bob made a motion with his hand and Matrix fired his weapon. His gun had turned into a small pistol when he rebooted, but it kept the user pinned behind his rock while Bob made his way closer to him. Dot and AndrAIa laid down cover fire as well.

Kevin wanted to help. He took advantage of the situation and dove behind another rock.

Bob fired his weapon as well. The user was unable to move to another location. Matrix moved forward another few yards while Dot and AndrAIa continued their cover fire.

He was close to Bob now and could talk to him. "What happened to Sawyer?" he asked.

"He was right behind me a nano ago."

"Where is he now?"

Kevin crouched behind another rock. He could see the user as well as Bob and Matrix. Bob spotted him sneaking up behind the user. He was holding some type of weapon in his hand and was aiming for the user. He crept closer to him.

Sawyer got right behind the user and said, "Drop your weapon and turn around."

For a moment, the user simply stood there. Then it complied with the second demand. He spun around to the left and took aim at Sawyer, sending a blast of energy his way. Kevin dove out of the beam's path, and fired his own weapon, sending green bursts of laser light toward his assailant.

Kevin was not as good a shot as the user, who easily dodged the fire. But, inadvertently, Sawyer had pushed the user away from his hiding spot, making him a clear target for Matrix.

A single blast came from Matrix's weapon, and it hit the user. He seemed to fracture like glass and then exploded into a million pieces.

"User dispatched," said Matrix in a low, satisfied tone.

"Thanks for bailing me out, Matrix," Kevin said, as he got up off the ground.

"Save it," Matrix said as he approached Sawyer. "I trashed the user to win the game, not to save you."

"Got it," said Kevin, annoyed. "So how do we get out of here?"

They waited for a few nanoseconds and nothing happened.

"Bob, what's wrong? Why hasn't the game left?" asked Dot.

"Glitch: scanner." The device spilled out some more data on the game. "This is not good. The user is using cheat codes to restore his life. He's been sent back to his last checkpoint. It won't take him long to get back here."

"And that means it won't matter how many times we kill him," said Enzo. "What do we do?"

"We have to get to the weapon," said Bob. "It's our only chance."

"Then we had better get moving fast," recommended AndrAIa.

They all sprinted immediately and ran toward the mountain again.

"Why didn't you tell us you were armed?" asked Dot angrily.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't tell you," said Kevin. "At the time I thought I would need it if I found Daemon."

"You still should have told us," said Dot, now feeling angry at having been deceived.

"Look, no offense, but you haven't been the most welcoming people I've ever met. That big, ugly green guy wants to tear me apart, and considering we're in a pretty bad situation, I wouldn't complain."

She didn't. This was no time for a debate, and Dot knew it. Instead she remained silent the rest of their journey towards the mountain.

When they got to the base of the mountain and prepared to make their ascent, Kevin spotted a cluster of tall orange trees with ovular tops growing solitarily over to the right. The trunks had long, narrow branches growing from them. They were leafless and resembled oversized cactus spikes.

"Anybody want a walking stick?" he asked. "It looks like a fair distance up."

"Are you an expert on mountain climbing, too?" asked Matrix.

"I grew up in Colorado," Kevin said. "The Rockies were my backyard."

"I'll take one," Enzo piped up.

"Me, too," added AndrAIa after no one else spoke.

Kevin walked over to the plants and pulled out his laser pistol. He set it to emit a constant beam so he could sear off a few of the branches like using a hot scalpel. He held it close and fired. With a quick amputation of green laser light, the limb fell to the ground. Then he cut off a short one for Enzo and a third one for himself.

As he bent over to pick them up, Kevin noticed the others looking at him strangely. With the exception of Matrix, they all had a look of fear and apprehension on their faces. He was about to ask what was wrong when he heard something hit the ground beside him. He glanced at it to see what it was and saw a glob of viscous liquid seeping into the ground. Kevin saw another glob fall from above on the same spot again. Slowly, he tilted his eyes upward, then his neck and head.

 _Oh_ , _crap._

He immediately realized why the others looked so scared. Hovering above him was the mouth of a massive, orange Venus fly trap. Oozing through the orifice was thick saliva that dripped onto the ground. Its mouth opened wider to reveal a double set of serrated teeth and a long tongue shaped like a whip with spikes growing from the end. It was big enough to eat him whole. Bob had warned about giant things like this, but Kevin hadn't expected to run into one, let alone make one angry by trimming its limbs.

The tongue lashed out and wrapped around his leg. He was pulled upwards with incredible force; it almost felt like his leg would be yanked out of its socket. He screamed in fright and agony as the monster swayed its head, jerking him all over the place. He dangled in midair as the fly trap began to reel in its tongue. Its mouth was open, giving him a dreadful view of his gruesome fate. Acting quickly, Kevin used the laser to cut the tongue. The beam sliced through the tissue with unfaltering ease. The creature let out an animalistic cry of pain as Kevin began falling back to the ground.

Where he expected to meet the hard surface of the planet, he was surprised to find himself cushioned against some kind of energy field. Sawyer saw that Bob was using the device on his arm to project a force field around him. AndrAIa and Dot opened fire on the fly trap using the weapons the game provided them with. It was vaporized within nanoseconds. A smoldering stump was all the evidence that it had ever existed.

"Are you okay, Kevin?" asked Enzo.

Sawyer was released from Glitch's suspension field and looked back over to where the giant fly trap had once been.

"I'm fine, I think," Kevin replied. "Are all games this dangerous?"

"All games are dangerous, period," Dot said. "Next time, Doctor, be more cautious. It's not just your ASCII at risk. In here, it's everyone's." She turned back to the others. "Let's go."

Kevin stood there a moment as they turned to begin the hike up the mountain. Enzo came over to him to offer a measure of comfort.

"Don't let her make you quit file or anything. They're just not used to you yet. I've made plenty of mistakes in games."

"It's not that," he said. "I think I'm beginning to see why no one here likes me very much. I could have been killed just now."

"Yeah," Enzo said. "Dot says that game cubes are too dangerous for me to play in, but they're too fun not to play."

"From what I've just seen, your sister's giving sound advice," Kevin said.

He and Enzo caught up with the rest of the team and began their ascent up the alien mountain. What other dangers awaited them, Kevin could only imagine.


	10. CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9: On the Offensive

The team climbed the mountain until they reached the source of the energy readings.

"This is it. The energy spikes are coming from inside this cave," stated Bob, looking at Glitch's sensors.

"How original," said Kevin, consulting his own scanning device. "So where do we go from here?"

"Since the user has infinite lives, we can't delete him to win, so we have to activate the weapon."

"And then what?" asked Sawyer.

"Then the game leaves, and we get back to Mainframe," Matrix said. "You act like you really don't know how the games work."

"That's because I don't know," Kevin said with annoyance in his voice. "I honestly don't know how this whole thing works. Actually playing inside a game is a lot different than playing from the outside." Then his expression grew stern. "Quite frankly, I'm getting tired of having to explain myself to you."

Matrix stepped up to Sawyer threateningly. "You listen to me," he started, but before he could get another word out, Dot immediately stopped him.

"No, you both listen to me," Dot said firmly. The renegade and the scientist turned to the . "This is neither the time nor the place to get into an argument. We've got a game to win, so plug up your outputs and come on."

The rest of them turned from the two bickering opponents and started to move into the cave.

When Kevin started to move forward, Matrix's heavy hand held him back. "You may have them all fooled, but you don't have me," he said with deep disgust, as if he were amassing all his will not to strangle Sawyer where he stood.

Then the green giant marched into the cave.

The tunnel wasn't completely dark. There was a blue illumination from the walls of the cave that seemed to come from no apparent source. Kevin scanned the interior and found that the energy spikes continued to grow as they got closer to the weapon.

"When we get to the weapon," Dot began to ask, "how do we start it?"

"Glitch says there's a handprint on the triggering mechanism," Bob explained. "All we have to do is put our hand on it. There's a problem, though."

"Problem?" asked AndrAIa. "What kind of problem?"

"There's a security device that we have to bypass before we can get to the weapon. We have to deactivate it before the user gets here."

"How long will that take?" asked Enzo.

"I don't know," Bob said. "It's supposed to be some kind of combination sequence. How long it takes to solve it depends on how many possible arrangements there are."

The cave tunnel took a sudden forty-five degree drop, and a brighter light seemed to come from an open room at the end.

"What kind of security device are we talking about?" asked Enzo.

"We're about to find out," Bob replied as they entered the room.

They entered a small grotto, only thirty feet from the floor to the ceiling and fifteen feet in diameter. There was a hole in the ceiling the size of a manhole cover where the natural sunlight shined into the room. The floor was flat, and the walls formed a sloping arc, giving the whole place the appearance of a semi-sphere. There were no stalagmites or stalactites in the cave, Kevin noticed. The designers of this game probably aimed to give it the appearance of an artificial structure.

Stationed around the room in a circle were seven rectangular pillars sticking four feet up out of the floor. Imbedded in each pillar at the top was a crystal chip the size of a coin. There was a different color chip for each pillar. In the direct center of this configuration was a pedestal with a mechanism that looked like a telescope fitted on it. The telescope had a large prism sticking out of it.

"What's that supposed to be?" asked Matrix.

"It's an optical pump," said Kevin, approaching the pedestal to examine it.

"An optical what?" asked Enzo.

"A laser," clarified Sawyer. "The sun shines through that hole in the ceiling and into the prism. The light is then broken down into its individual wavelengths, and this telescopic device filters out the other wavelengths so that only one is emitted."

"This is the security device?" asked Dot.

"This is it," said Bob. "We've got to hurry, too, because the user's on his way here," he reported, looking up from Glitch.

Dot stepped up to the pedestal and noticed a small crank on the side. When she turned it, the telescope part began to rotate. When she had rotated it far enough, there was an audible click and a narrow beam of orange light shot from the laser and into the blue crystal pedestal.

The crystal momentarily glowed, then died down.

"What was that?" asked Dot.

"The laser must act as the key for the safeguard," said AndrAIa. "We have to match up the beams with their corresponding crystals to unlock the weapon."

"It makes sense," said Bob, "only this is a combination puzzle. We have to activate the crystals in a certain sequence."

"So what's the sequence?" asked Matrix.

"Well," started Sawyer, "a prism refracts light the same way all the time, from the shortest wavelength to the longest wavelength: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Try it, in that order."

Dot complied and turned the crank until the lens was even with the red crystal. However, instead of a red beam, a blue one shot out instead.

"What happened?" asked Dot.

"The mirrors inside the laser must rotate with the pedestal," Bob reasoned. "That way you get a different color with every turn."

"If that's the case, how are we supposed to align the lasers with their associated crystals?" asked Kevin.

For a while, they all stood there in silence. It seemed impossible to them that they could have come so far in the game only to be halted by a single puzzle.

Finally, AndrAIa broke the hush. "I've got it."

She stepped up to the pedestal and extended the fin on her left arm. She moved the laser into several positions until the red laser beam was expelled.

"What have you thought of, AndrAIa?" asked Matrix.

"Just watch and learn, Sparky," she said.

Cleverly, she angled the appendage so that the beam would reflect off her fin and into the red crystal. She turned the crank slightly to activate the laser and the red beam was successfully reflected into its proper crystal. The chip glowed bright red and stayed that way.

"She can do that with her fins?" Kevin asked, amazed.

"Great thinking, AndrAIa," said Bob. "Now can you angle every other beam like that?"

Within a few nanoseconds the last chip was glowing with violet light. A pulsating field of multicolored light surrounded them. There was a feeling of weightlessness and a sensation of inertia, but for the most part they felt completely still. An instant later, after a bright flash, they found themselves in another room.

"Wow," exclaimed Enzo, "that was alphanumeric!"

His voice echoed in the large room they were now standing in. The design was a combination between a factory and a missile silo.

They now stood facing the final objective of the game. The weapon was enormous. It looked like an oversized cannon off a battleship. It was over a hundred feet tall, its body made of a reflective black material. Parts of the mechanism were transparent, and they could see a blue plasma substance pulsating through the machine.

After getting closer to it, they saw it actually extended below the floor down several stories into the ground. The weapon was supported by a wide shaft that ran deep into the planet's crust. A wide crevice around the machine allowed them to look down into the bowels of the device. To the side of the machine was a pedestal with the print of a hand.

"That's a long way down," said Matrix.

"This weapon must channel geothermal energy from the planet's core," Kevin stated.

"Well," said Bob, "let's get this over with."

The Guardian approached the activation mechanism and was about to place his hand on it when a bright light flashed behind the team. When they turned to see what it was, a small explosive was rolling on the floor towards them.

Matrix yelled, "Move!"

They all scattered in different directions as the explosive detonated. The blast was a defining shock wave sending dust and fragments in every direction. Out of the smoke, the user walked into the room.

"How did he get in here?" asked Matrix, drawing his own gun.

"He must have been watching us," Bob said. "We've led him right to it."

The user was arming another grenade for the weapon, but AndrAIa came after him and kicked the grenade out of his hand, then leveled him with a quick punch to the jaw. Matrix joined in the struggle, and they managed to force the user to take cover around a corner. There was exchanging gunfire back and forth.

"We need someone to place their hand on the print scanner," said Dot.

Enzo and Frisket were hiding behind the weapon with Kevin.

"This does not look good," said Kevin. He was then confronted with a disturbing thought. "Enzo," Kevin asked, "what happens if we lose the game?"

He looked at Kevin, wide-eyed. "We'll be nullified!"

"Nullified? What do you mean?" Kevin asked in a suddenly alerted tone.

"You know, end program, quit without saving, the cut that can't be undone, deleted!"

"We'll be dead?"

"Worse!" exclaimed Enzo. "We'll be turned into mindless nulls!"

Kevin's heart froze. He took 'deleted' to mean death, and if he died in here he would never get home. Then he had a realization. That's why they were so uneasy of his presence. They fought the users in the games, and if the sprites lost they were killed as a result, and he was a user.

"Oh, God," Kevin whispered.

There was another grenade thrown. It landed against the weapon. If it had gone off the user would have won, but Enzo courageously picked up the explosive and threw it back at the user. They all saw him run from out behind the corner as it exploded, the blast casting him into the air. He landed a few feet away on his back.

"Take that, you dipswitch!" yelled Enzo.

"Forget this," said Kevin. He reached over and placed his hand on the control panel.

The roof of the building parted like the upper housing of an observatory. The familiar scene of the alien heavens greeted them. This time, however, hundreds of battle cruisers, presumably the user's fleet, hovered low in the sky. They looked almost like aircraft carriers with added rocket engines on the undersides. Kevin didn't have long to take notice of them, though.

They heard the weapon building up a powerful charge. The transparent portions of the weapon's casing glowed with greater intensity until an almost blinding ray of red light was expelled from the barrel. So extreme was the power of the ray that the atmosphere turned crimson red. The ships were instantly destroyed on contact as the cannon turned on its rotating platform, sweeping the sky with its destructive beam of energy, the burning remains of the cruisers falling to the surface like dead fireflies.

"GAME OVER," said the computerized voice.

The game cube lifted off the sector and left through the same way it came in. The hole closed and the danger was over... for now at least.

"Enzo," Dot said, running over to her little brother, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Dot."

"Good job, Little Sparky. You won the game," said AndrAIa. "You helped beat the user."

"Kevin was the one who turned the machine on," Enzo said.

Dot looked at Kevin squarely in the face. She wasn't sure what to say, except, "Thank you, Kevin." She said it with complete gratitude. It was the first time Dot had actually treated Kevin like a normal person. It was something he appreciated.

"It was nothing," he said earnestly.

Matrix simply looked at Kevin and didn't know what to think. He had fought the users all his life and had grown to hate them. Now a user had just help them avoid being nullified. What in the Net was happening? Had the universe suddenly gone eight-bit? They heard an explosion and turned and saw the Principle Office under attack.

"Oh, no. Megabyte's ABCs are back," said Bob.

"Follow me," Dot said. She led them into the diner and jumped over the counter. She reached under the counter and flipped a red switch. A section of the tile flooring mechanically opened up, and a chamber the size of a phone booth rose up. It was a vacuum tube chamber.

"What's that?" asked AndrAIa in surprise.

"I had it installed as an emergency way into the Principal Office. Come on."

She jumped into the open chamber and was drawn into the tube.

"Does your sister plan for everything?" asked Kevin.

"You don't know the half of it," replied Enzo.

The others followed Dot into the tube except Bob and Matrix. They would give backup to the CPUs.

The tube was almost a straight path. It was completely smooth, like it was made out of a single line of pipe. They continued to gain speed, and Kevin felt the increasing pressure on his ears. Kevin could hear Enzo giving an excited 'WOO-HOO' as the tube gently bent and curved. Finally, they saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and when they emerged from the tube they found themselves in Dot's office.

 _Well_ , _that was different_ , thought Sawyer as he followed Dot into the War Room.

There were signs that there had been a huge power surge. Control stations were shorted out and blackened, the lights were flickering, and the shields were completely down.

Mouse was looking at a vidwindow displaying the damage to the building.

"Mouse, what's our status?" Dot asked.

"Megabyte's evidently done some fine-tunin' with his new ABCs. They're armed with a new type of energy cannon that our shields can barely take."

"Why aren't they using them now?" AndrAIa asked.

"Their shields use more power than the cannons. They have to stop and let them recharge," Phong said.

"What about our shields?" asked Dot.

"We took a heavy hit from a shot-down ABC. It sent feedback through the power grid. I've diverted power back to the shield generator, but the codes have been too fragmented."

"Dot," Kevin said, "let me help. I think I know how to get your shields back up and running."

"Who's this guy?" asked Mouse.

"Let him help, Mouse. He helped us win the game," Dot said.

 _I hope I know what I'm doing_ , she thought.

"Are you sure you want him fooling around with the shields? He might just make it worse," the hacker pointed out.

A sensor console beeped, and on the main vidwindow another ABC was getting ready to fire.

"Let him do it," said Dot.

Mouse turned around and opened another vidwindow displaying the shield codes.

With any luck he could create a code that would make the shields impenetrable.

"Dot," said Phong, panicking, "the ABCs are about to fire again. If he does not get the shields back online, we will have to surrender."

"We won't do that, Phong. That's not even an option."

The disruptor cannon was ready to open fire.

"Now would be a good time to raise the shields, Kevin," recommended AndrAIa.

* * *

Bob and Matrix were giving the ABCs all they had. Their shields were still as strong as they had been at first.

Bob was on his zip-board, trying to contain the ABCs with a force field bubble, but their shields just repulsed his attacks. Matrix went about attacking the crafts in his normal routine, going in with Gun blazing and explosions reigning all around. Of course, he didn't put a dent in a single one of the ABCs, and had to withdraw with Bob to coordinate with the other CPU patrol commanders.

"I've almost used up all my ammo," he told Bob.

"Their shields haven't even dropped," said Bob, looking at the scans he took with Glitch.

They heard one of the ABCs powering up. It was going to fire at the building again.

"They'll destroy the Principle Office if they fire again," said Matrix.

"They won't do that," said Bob. "They're trying to get to Megabyte. They're going to drill through the hull of the Principal Office!"

They watched as the laser fired, the beam coming toward them with full force.

All of a sudden, the shields were active again. The beam hit the green barrier, but instead of a weakening effect, there was a momentary absorption of the beam, and it was instantly reflected back on the ABC that fired it. Its shields were immediately disintegrated and the vehicle burst into billions of individual particles. Another ABC fired, and it was met with the same fate. The pilots of the remaining ABCs soon realized their weapons were useless, and turned around quickly to speed back to G-Prime.

Everyone in the War Rom was both relieved and amazed. The binomes in the room cheered as they had just fought off Megabyte's forces once again. The CPUs were already in pursuit with Matrix leading them.

Specky brought Phong to the attention of Kevin's new shield codes. "Sir, these shield codes are unlike anything I've ever seen before. They're even more complex than Mouse's codes."

"What did you do?" asked young Enzo in amazement.

"Quantum encryption," said Sawyer, leaning back in the chair. "It's an unbreakable type of encoding, completely hack-proof and self-sustaining. With it, anything that fires on you will instantly get a taste of its own medicine."

"I've never seen anything like this," Mouse said, looking at the codes.

A vidwindow opened from the cellblock. It was a CPU troop. "Commander Matrix, we have a problem," he said.

"What happened?"

"There was a bad power surge down here, and the block's force fields were knocked out."

"What are you saying?" asked AndrAIa.

"Megabyte's escaped, ma'am. We don't know where he is."

At the very instant of hearing this, Dot started giving orders. "Code Red. Emergency lockdown. Nothing is to get in or out of the Principal Office. Place security teams at every access point."

Bob appeared on the vidwindow and noticed the commotion. "Dot, what's going on?"

"Megabyte's loose," she said.

"What?" Bob said with both disbelief and a hint of anger.

"We're going into lockdown. You and Matrix get in here now."

"We're on our way," he said and the vidwindow closed.

"Guys, I'm a little in the dark about all this. Who's Megabyte?" asked Kevin.

"He is a virus," explained Phong. "A very malicious virus at that. Repeatedly, he has tried to take over Mainframe and spread to the Supercomputer."

"If he ever did manage to infect the Supercomputer he would have unlimited power over the Net," Mouse added.

"Control the entire Internet?" said Kevin.

"Believe it. Daemon almost did it," Dot said.

"Except now Megabyte has Trojan horse abilities. He can look like anyone," said Enzo.

Bob and Matrix entered the room.

Matrix was ready for action as usual when it concerned Megabyte. "Where is he?" he demanded.

"We don't know," Mouse said from a console on the other side of the room. She was using internal sensors to look for Megabyte, knowing that it would do no good. Phong's scans of him when he was posing as Bob couldn't even tell the difference, but she scanned for him anyway, thinking she might just detect something by luck. "Chances are he's morphed into one of the troops in the building."

"What's he waiting for? Why doesn't he go after the Gateway Command?" asked Dot.

"He's toying with us," said Bob.

"He can try," she said determinedly. "Begin a systematic sweep of the Principal Office. As long as we're in lockdown he can't get out."

"We need to secure the Gateway Command. That'll be the first thing Megabyte will try to get to," recommended AndrAIa. "If he manages to bring an army of Web Creatures into Mainframe we can kiss our bitmaps good-bye."

"We need to be careful about who we interact with," said Bob. "Anyone could potentially be Megabyte."

* * *

Ray glided down the corridors on Baud with a team of troops behind him. They were securing rooms within the hallway, making sure Megabyte wasn't in any of them. They were armed with high yield deletion weapons and were under orders to shoot to delete.

Ray turned to the team behind him. "You blokes spread out and finish searchin' this corridor. I'll go on ahead and check the last few rooms."

The troop saluted and began to coordinate with the rest of the binomes. Ray glided down to the end of the hall and went into one of the power conduit rooms where energy was regulated from the core to the rest of the corridor. The room seemed clear, but when Ray turned to leave he saw one that of the distributors in the wall had been ripped out. When he took a closer look at it he noticed it had been sliced by something with claws.

 _Megabyte has been here._

Ray sensed movement behind him, and he swiftly spun around. Megabyte had been hiding in the shadows. Like some nightmarish demon, he jumped down from the ceiling and gave a crippling blow to the surfboard. The Surfer's body armor flickered and he collapsed to the floor. Megabyte dragged him into the shadows of the room where he couldn't be seen along with his surfboard. Then through the use of his Trojan horse abilities, Megabyte morphed into Ray. He stepped into the hall and passed by a CPU troop.

"All clear, sir?" asked the binome.

"Yep. All clear in here."


	11. CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10: Vengeance

"Okay," Kevin said. "I've established a program that will run my new modifications for as long as you need your shields up. They can now run indefinitely and not even be weakened if fired on."

"Thank ya, Doc," said Mouse. "Maybe sometime you can show me how your programmin' codes work. I've never seen anything like 'em."

"It's easy if you understand quantum physics," said Kevin.

"Don't worry. I'm a fast learner," she said with a clever smirk.

"Well, quantum encryption is designed so that the key to decrypting the code changes whenever the code is tampered with. When that blast hit the shields the encryption sequence itself changed and reflected the blast back."

"And the key was altered through quantum uncertainty," filled in Mouse.

Surprised, Kevin raised his eyebrow. "That's right."

As the scientist and the hacker continued their discussion, Bob was looking over the medical reports from the two guards that were attacked by Megabyte. The more he read, the more he became confused. "This doesn't make any sense," he said.

"What doesn't, Bob?" asked Dot.

"I've been looking over the diagnostics Phong ran on the two troops that were attacked."

"What about them?"

"Well, they weren't infected. They were only drained of energy. When Megabyte has attacked before he infected everyone he could get to. Why didn't he do it this time?"

A vidwindow opened and Matrix was on the other end.

"Guys, I've found Ray," he said.

Mouse's attention became fixated on this report. "What happened to him?" she asked in a concerned voice.

"He's fine, Mouse, just unconscious. Megabyte really did a number on him, but he'll be fine. We're in power station room 626. Megabyte sliced through one of the conduits down here. I can't tell why."

Bob suddenly had a revelation. "Of course!"

"What is it?" asked Mouse.

"The reason Megabyte didn't infect the two guards is because he didn't have enough energy."

"But energy shouldn't matter. Viral takeover doesn't require any excess energy," stated Dot.

"That was before the Web changed him, but, like me, he was mutated. He's a different virus now. With his new mimicking abilities he uses up more power. He has to regenerate in order to morph and infect."

"Then why didn't he infect Ray when he had the chance?" asked Matrix.

"His energy must not have been high enough," Phong filled in. "He can only take energy from what he can infect, and he could not infect because he still needs to recharge."

"So all we have to do is keep him from finding any power sources to feed on," said Mouse.

"I take it that's easier said than done," Kevin said.

"You're right. We'll have to shut down all power to the Principal Office and evacuate all personnel to secured areas," said Dot.

"But what will keep him from taking the form of one of them?" asked Kevin.

"He's right, Dot," said AndrAIa. "If we're going to catch Megabyte we'll have to lead him on and make him come to us."

"But how? He can mimic anyone he wants," said Matrix through the vidwindow.

"I think we can safely evacuate everyone without having to worry about Megabyte trying to get out," Bob said.

"Why is that, my son?" asked Phong.

"Because he wants to finish what he started," he said slowly with an unfamiliar coldness. "He wants revenge, and he's not going to leave until he has what he wants." Bob turned to his friends. "As long as the Gateway Command remains in the building he's going to try and get to it while trying to get to us, too. He won't leave."

There was silence for a moment. They knew he was right, and they knew that this was the final chance they would have to finish Megabyte forever.

Dot turned to Specky. "Specky, put me through to the entire building."

The technician turned to the intercom control board and opened a channel.

"Attention, all personnel," began Dot as she spoke over the intercom system, "begin emergency evacuation procedures immediately. Repeat, all personnel: Begin emergency evacuation procedures immediately." She motioned for Specky to close the circuit.

As the military CPUs started to leave the War Room, Dot turned to Specky.

"Specky," Dot said, "that means you too."

"Understood," said the binome. He then turned to carry out his orders.

The determined turned to Bob. "Okay, Bob, now how are we supposed to find Megabyte? We've limited the people he can mimic to just us, but it's still a pretty big building."

Bob tapped Glitch's circular face, and it slid open, revealing a hidden compartment. He took out several small nodes. "These are micro trackers," Bob explained. He handed one to each of his friends. "They each give off a unique signal Megabyte won't be able to copy. Glitch will be able to pick up on the tracker and that way you can be identified."

"What about you, Bob. How will we recognize you?" asked Mouse.

"He can't replicate Glitch either. Just look for Glitch," Bob said.

 _If it had only been that easy before_ , thought Dot.

The door to the War Room opened and Ray walked inside.

"Did I miss anythin'?" he asked.

On the other side of the vidwindow Matrix was helping the real Ray Tracer to his feet. They instantly knew which one was Megabyte. The Ray that was in the War Room didn't have Baud, and Mouse knew his surfboard has always with him.

"You're not Ray!" she shouted as she looked Megabyte in the face.

Again, he morphed into his true form. This was the first time Kevin had actually seen Megabyte. He simply stood motionless, looking at this monster.

Everyone spread apart. Mouse drew her katana, and AndrAIa extended her paralyzing fingernails and had her starfish in her hand.

Bob was protecting Dot with Glitch ready to use. Matrix was no longer on the vidwindow but running as fast as he could to the War Room to get to AndrAIa, and Ray was with him with the same idea of Mouse.

"It is too late, Guardian. No one can stop me now."

"You talk too much!" said Mouse as she began attacking him.  
With expert precision, Mouse swung her sword, but Megabyte simply parried each attack with his claws.

AndrAIa fired a barrage of paralyzing fingernails, but they had no effect on the virus. She reached for her starfish and threw it into Megabyte's right arm, hoping to weaken his blocking ability so as to give Mouse a chance to get a good stab at him. It lodged in his upper arm, but it didn't even slow him down. The virus did notice, however, and with Mouse's next swing Megabyte grabbed her katana between his two hands and knocked her back with a singular thrust to the stomach from his right leg.

The hacker had both air and consciousness knocked from her. Dot kneeled down next to Mouse while Megabyte approached AndrAIa in a predatory stature.

"You have been a thorn in my side for too long," he hissed at the game sprite.

"I'm about to get even worse," she said with sly determinism.

Megabyte leaped into the air toward AndrAIa, but Bob was quick on his attacks.

"Glitch: particle beam." The keytool fired a beam of yellow energy at Megabyte.

The unexpected force sent him reeling into the wall like a rag doll. Metal collided with metal in a loud smash, and he hit the floor just a few feet in front of AndrAIa.

AndrAIa waited until Megabyte managed to get to his knees before delivering her final blow. She finished her attack by running up the side wall, propelling herself into the air, making a graceful 360 degree turn in midair while extending her leg and in a karate stature, and running her foot into the side of Megabyte's head. The force of her aerial roundhouse kick knocked Megabyte through the guardrail and onto the floor map of the city.

Despite the beating, Megabyte wasn't down for the count yet.

Bob ran over to Megabyte and had Glitch aimed at his head. "It's over, Megabyte," Bob said.

"Not yet, Guardian. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve!" Just as Bob was about to place a containment field around Megabyte, he vanished right into thin air.

"What in the Net?" Bob said, completely dumbfounded.

"What happened?" asked Sawyer.

"He's gone! He just dis —" Before Bob could finish his sentence, a powerful force sent him staggering back. It felt as if someone had punched him square in the chest.

Leaning against the lower wall, trying to recover his stolen breath, Bob felt a cold metal hand tightly grip his throat. Unable to breathe or even see what was doing this, the Guardian struggled with his invisible assailant as it lifted him off his feet and held him hovering in the air.

"Bob!" Dot yelled in terror as she tried to reawaken Mouse.

Then, like water slipping off a glassy surface, a hand materialized out of thin air.

Following was an arm, then a chest and torso, until finally the entire frame of Megabyte became visible.

"I've waited a long time for this," Megabyte said as he squeezed on Bob's throat. The virus could see Bob's eyes start to roll back into his head, and he grinned in pleasure as he slowly chocked the life out of his adversary.

Then a green laser beam pierced Megabyte's arm. The pain was excruciating, and before he could scream another beam seared into his elbow joint. Sparks flew as his lower arm became detached from the rest of him and fell off, releasing the Guardian. Bob hit the floor coughing, straining for breath.

Megabyte roared loudly in agony. It was a ghastly wale unlike anything Sawyer had ever heard before. It was a predatory roar that was half Web Creature and half virus. He clasped the wound like a wounded animal and turned to the source of the attack.

In all the confusion of the game and the attack on the Principal Office Bob and Dot had forgotten to disarm Sawyer of his personal sidearm. Now Kevin stood with his laser weapon trained directly on Megabyte, ready at a moment's notice to pull the trigger again.

"You," he said solemnly. "You're the one they say is the user."

"I am," said Sawyer. "And believe me, I don't have a problem with deleting viruses."

"It's not him," said AndrAIa. "It's another alias." She pointed to the wound.

Where there should have been a wound where Kevin had severed Megabyte's arm there were only fluctuating zeros and ones fading in and out like a hazy television picture.

"You will pay for this!" yelled Megabyte, then he lashed his tentacles at Kevin.

Before Sawyer could fire his own weapon a red energy pulse struck Megabyte from the side. Just before the tentacles reached him the virus burst into millions of individual bits of binary code.

Kevin turned to see Dot stand up while slowly lowering the disruptor in her hand.

Steadily, Bob got to his feet, still rubbing his sore neck.

"Did we get him?" asked Kevin.

"No," said AndrAIa, "it was just another alias."

"What?" asked Kevin.

"Megabyte can duplicate himself as many times as he wants to," she explained.

"Did you know that he could go invisible like that?"

"No. It must be one of his new functions from the Web."

Matrix and Ray rushed into the room.

"Where is he?" asked Matrix.

"It's fine now, Sparky," said AndrAIa. "It was just another alias, but we got him."

Ray went immediately to Mouse. "Is she still..."

"She's just knocked offline, Ray," Dot said. "She'll be fine."

She left Ray with Mouse and went to Bob, who was still leaning against a control station. "Are you okay, Bob?" she asked softly.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice strained from being nearly strangled to death.

Dot put an arm around his waist and helped him over to a chair to sit down.

"I don't get it," said AndrAIa. "Why would Megabyte send an alias?"

"Probably to test our weaknesses," Dot reasoned.

"Whatever the reason," Bob announced, rising from the chair with his voice returning to normal, "we need to minimize the number of people he can get to." He turned to Ray. "Ray, take Mouse to Phong in the med lab and stay there. Here, take one of these." Bob handed Ray a micro tracker. "Dot, I want you to go with Ray and lock yourselves up in the med lab."

A green light started flashing on one of the control stations.

"No way, Bob," she said sternly. "I'm staying."

"This isn't a debate, Dot," said Bob seriously. "Megabyte has every intention of deleting us, and I don't want him getting to you."

"I'm willing to take the risk," she said.

"Well, I'm not," replied Bob austerely, his gaze fixed on hers. "I need to know you're safe."

"Guys," said Kevin. They all turned to the user. "Is that light supposed to be blinking?"

Dot turned to see what he was talking about. Her expression changed instantly when she went to the station and inspected the readout. "Oh, no."

"What is it, Dot?" asked Matrix.

"Someone's activating the Gateway Command," she replied.

* * *

As the portal generator opened up on top of the Principal Office, the real Megabyte turned to the control station on the Gateway Command.

 _My diversion worked. Now it is time._

He activated the Gateway, sending a pulse throughout cyberspace. Within nanoseconds he received a lock onto the Web.

He had lost contact with his alias a few moments before. They must have destroyed it. _No matter. It is too late anyway._

When the portal fully formed he began to call out with his mind to his army on the other side.

* * *

"It was a diversion! Megabyte's opened us back to the Web," said AndrAIa.

They watched from the War Room's main vidwindow as the first of many Web Creatures appeared through the portal.

"This is bad," Bob said. "This is very bad."

Another vidwindow suddenly opened in front of them with the virus on the other side. "Not so confident now, are we, Bob?" said Megabyte, his gaze narrowed on the Guardian.

"Megabyte," Bob said, "stop this."

"What could possibly compel me to do that? I'm afraid you're in no position to negotiate."

"You're wrong. You still haven't gotten what you wanted," Bob said.

"What would that be, pray tell?"

"Me." Megabyte's stare became intrigued. "This is between you and me, Megabyte. If you want to delete me then let's finish this once and for all, just the two of us."

The virus laughed. "I salute you, Bob. You're still the valorous hero even to the very end. But I've already done far worse than delete you. I've hurt you. I've taken everything from you just as everything was taken from me. I turned them all against you and took your place. Your friends deserted you, your love betrayed you. They barely gave you a second thought. They abandoned you for a hollow memory of the man you once were. I've taken your life, the woman you love, your family. I've devastated you without erasing you, and now I'm going to take the rest. I'm going to destroy everything precious to you, Bob, and when I'm done you will beg me to end your program. And when that happens, when you have nothing left, then you will truly be like me: cold, desolate, and broken." He began to laugh.

Bob's fists had been tightened to the point of pain. It was as if he were possessed by a being not himself when he screamed in anger, his face contorted in an unnatural look of pure rage, and slashed the vidwindow with Glitch producing an energy blade. The virus's laughing vanished with the vidwindow. It was reduced to fragments, and the image of the virus was gone.

Bob stood to the side, his head lowered and his breathing heavy. His fists were still clenched, but he slowly let them go.

No one knew what to say. For the next few nanos, silence enshrouded them.


	12. CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 11: Web World War 2

As they watched from the War Room, the team saw an entire pod of Web Creatures emerge from the Gate's portal. They assembled into a large platoon formation above the building with Megabyte as their commanding officer.

"What in the world are those things?" asked Sawyer as he stepped closer to observe the horrid looking beings.

"Web Creatures," replied Ray. "They're very aggressive and very dangerous. They live in the Web."

"Sure are ugly," Kevin said.

A Web Creature moved into view on the vidwindow, taking up the whole screen. It showed its giant mouth and sharp teeth as it completely took the camera in its mouth and ripped it off, leaving static on the screen.

"I see what you mean by aggressive," said Sawyer.

"Megabyte has a telepathic link with the Web Creatures," said Bob. "We can't let him leave the system."

"Can you shut down the Gateway from here?" asked Matrix of his sister.

Dot was at the control station trying to do just that but had no luck. "I can't do it from here," she said. "He must have the controls locked out."

"We can't just start attacking the pod," said Bob. "The last time it took out half of our defense forces."

"I'll have the CPUs on standby anyway," said Dot. "They're more experienced since the last invasion. They'll be better prepared."

"That still doesn't solve our problem of shutting off the Gateway," said Ray.

"My father built a safety protocol into the new Gate's programming," said Dot. "After fifteen microseconds it shuts down and won't be able to operate again for another fifteen after that."

"So we have a fifteen microsecond window to take out at least a hundred of these things and stop Megabyte from dialing the Gateway again," said Sawyer. "Not a lot of time."

"It'll have to work," said Dot. "In the meantime, Ray, take Mouse to med lab and make sure she and Phong are secured there. We're going to need your help on this, so get back quickly."

"You got it," said the search engine. He scooped Mouse up in his arms, stepped up onto his surfboard, and was off down the hall.

"Bob," said Dot. "I need you to call Turbo —"

"No way, Dot," he said, cutting her off. "You know what the Guardian Protocol says about Web Creatures. If Turbo knows an entire pod is here, the Council will order the system be destroyed."

"After we stopped Daemon they won't help us with this?" asked AndrAIa.

"Turbo and I go back a long time," said Bob. "That didn't stop the Collective from trying to delete us last time."

The realization that they were on their own struck Dot and the others like a spear through the stomach. They had been in this situation before, and the last time it had cost them a great price to restore their lives. Even now, the wounds still weren't completely healed.

"We don't have a choice, Dot," said Bob, his voice heavy with fatigue. "We have to fight this ourselves."

At first it seemed as if she would cry. She bowed her head and closed her eyes in contemplation. Then that determined expression wiped away the sorrowful look, and the familiar Dot Matrix spirit resurfaced. She donned her reading glasses as she often did when confronted with a problem, and stood straight, as if she were about to take on Megabyte herself.

"Let's do it," she said. She stepped to the communications station and opened a channel with the CPU captains.

* * *

Megabyte had a stunning view of Mainframe from the top of the Principal Office. He would lay waste to this infernal system once again, then move on to his main objective. The Supercomputer was still recovering from Daemon's prolonged attack, and the Collective would be in no condition to fully resist his siege. It would be difficult, he realized. He would probably lose half his forces in the initial strike, but in the end his success was guaranteed.

"Soon," he said to himself, "I will finally have the strength to crush this infernal system and conquer the Supercomputer." His complete revenge was almost at hand.

The virus had almost a hundred in his ranks. With his telepathy he could direct them to do any action he desired, even hunt down the sprites. The thought alone made him smile.

First, he would free the creatures on the city, unleashing his greatest reign of terror yet. When all life had been devoured for energy for his army he would move on to the Supercomputer. Once there he could use its vast connections to bring in more Web Creatures and send his army to every system on the Net. A flawless plan.

Just when another Web Creature came through the Gateway the portal destabilized and disappeared.

"What!" Megabyte roared as he returned to the control panel. "How did they shut it down?"

He tried to bring the ping function online, but it wouldn't activate. In anger, he slammed his clenched fists into the control panel.

 _No matter. I have enough Web Creatures to take the city. When I arrive in the Supercomputer_ , _I can use the ports there to import more creatures._

As he was thinking, a gust of wind came from under the portal generator. Megabyte turned around and found Mainframe's entire fleet of CPUs assembled in front of the army of Web Creatures.

"Well, well," he chuckled. "This is going to be fun." Mentally, he called to his soldiers. _Delete them all._

* * *

The attack force was in position. This was going to be the biggest battle Mainframe had seen since the first Web War.

Dot and AndrAIa coordinated the CPUs from the War Room.

"Here they come," said AndrAIa as the Web Creatures began to advance on the fleet.

"All units, this is said Dot. Fire at will."

The two forces collided face to face. Energy blasts from the CPUs hit their targets, but it wasn't enough to stop their brutal enemy. Mercilessly, the Web Creature army cut right through the CPU vehicles like tissue paper. It was a violent battle.

Matrix was on his motorcycle. He charged right into the midst of the battle with every weapon in his arsenal. Needless to say, it was the most fun he had had in cycles.

Kevin and Bob were on their way to the hangar level where Bob's car had been parked.

"Are you sure you want to stay?" asked Bob. "You can go at any time."

Kevin looked at the retrieval module on his wrist, then back at Bob. "My mission isn't over. If Megabyte can do what you say he can, then he represents a threat to national security. I have to help stop him." He paused before saying his next statement. "Speaking of which, what happens when we stop Megabyte? What's going to happen to him?"

"I'm not sure yet. I had hoped that we could turn him, but now I'm not sure if I can."

"You mean reprogram a virus," said Kevin.

"Haven't you ever tried it?" asked Bob.

"It's easier to just delete them," said Kevin. "A virus is destructive by design. You can't just reprogram one."

"I tried it. It worked once," said Bob, his thoughts reflecting back to Hexadecimal. "Maybe you just need to be more compassionate."

Sawyer had to admit that Bob had a point. His experience in Mainframe had opened a new, fascinating world unlike anything he could have imagined. The human race definitely needed to change its outlook.

Bob stopped and turned to Kevin. "Before we go any further I need to know something. A partner of mine once told me that why a user creates viruses is beyond our understanding. So I'm asking. Why would a user willingly unleash a virus?"

Kevin sighed and leaned against the wall. "There are countless reasons. It's mainly about power. Some people feel they have the right to control a system they helped shape, others just because they can. They need to feel powerful, so they do their best to corrupt a system everybody depends on."

"So it's all about power," Bob said.

"And control. To control the system means to dominate the system. So why do we create viruses? Just because we can. We created the Internet, and some people feel we can do whatever we please with it."

Bob seemed disappointed by Kevin's response as he turned his head to the ground.

"Not all users are like that, though," he continued. "Some try to protect the Net, keep it open and free to everyone. That's one reason I'm here."

"But you don't know what you're doing to us. We get caught in the crossfire."

"I realize that now. That's why we have to stop Megabyte and get me back to my world. I can stop this from happening. I can help make this world safer and my world better. I know you don't trust me, but I'm asking you to. I can help."

Bob looked at Kevin. There was sincerity in his voice. Bob believed he was telling the truth. The Guardian had gained a degree of respect for this traveler. Since his arrival he had proven himself over and over again as a friend. He won the game and had saved his life when Megabyte tried to choke it out of him. If trust was something to be earned, Kevin had certainly done so.

"I believe you," said Bob. "Come on. We've got a job to do."

Kevin nodded, and they continued toward the hanger.

* * *

"This is Mike the TV coming to you live from outside the Principal Office where an entire pod of Web Creatures has entered Mainframe! The system's defense forces are falling like flies as they try to repel the gruesome invaders. How did this happen? Who unleashed this dreaded force upon us?"

A CPU patrol unit crashed behind Mike and exploded into flames. The news reporter jumped in fright, then looked back at the camera crew.

"Did you see that?" he yelled frantically. "That almost hit me! I don't believe this. It's like I'm a magnet for falling, flaming objects! First I get infected by Megabyte, then I get sent right into a war zone! I'm not supposed to be on live coverage. My agent is so getting fragged when I get my hands on him."

One of the crew members cleared his throat and pointed back to the camera.

"Oh, right," said Mike. He cleared his throat and continued with the coverage. "How did this happen? Who unleashed this dreaded force upon us? If we're still processing after this commercial break, we just might have those answers! Stay tuned. And now, a word from our sponsor.

"This program is sponsored by the Glitch Bob Estrogen Brigade, the only fan club in Mainframe entirely dedicated to the 'hottest Guardian in the Net.' For free details concerning membership and a free Guardian Bob teddy bear call 1-999-999-9999. Guardian Bob teddy bears are in limited supply and come in various styles. Call now!"

* * *

Megabyte worked furiously at the control terminal. He tried to reroute energy to the Gateway Command, but the controls just wouldn't respond. The sprites had somehow managed to cut power to it.

 _Curse those wretched..._

A voice called from behind him. "You and I have unfinished business."

Slowly, Megabyte turned to see a very harsh-faced Bob with Glitch pointed directly at his head.

"Still sore over that business with Dot, I see," Megabyte said. "How did you get up here so fast?"

"Never mind," Bob said. "You're through, Megabyte. The Gate's offline and I'm not letting you get away with this."

"What do you plan to do, reprogram me? I'd rather be deleted, and we both know you can't go against your code. We're both trapped by our nature, Bob. I can't be like you any more than you can bring yourself to delete me, and that's what you're going to have to do if you ever want to stop me."

"Can it," retorted the Guardian. "I'm sick of your small talk. You've done nothing but ruin the lives of my friends. It ends here. One way or another, you're coming with me."

"So you're threatening me now? That's a bit dark for you, Guardian." He shot Bob a malicious glare. "You won't delete me. It goes against everything you stand for. You couldn't live with yourself."

"I'm learning to live with a lot of things," Bob said.

The grin on Megabyte's face disappeared as a red dot appeared on his chest.

"Can you really bring yourself to do it, Bob?"

Bob remained silent, his eyes uncertain. He was struggling inside. His rage and guilt were fighting against his core programming. He admitted Megabyte deserved deletion. His experiment had both succeeded and failed. It was time to end it, time to put a stop to the madness, but he couldn't do it. Bob was no executioner.

Then Megabyte began to chuckle. "That's what I thought."

An invisible pair of tentacles wrapped around Bob from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. He was caught off guard and struggled to get out of their hold, but it was no use. The grip was too much to break out of. Before Bob could call on Glitch it was removed from his wrist.

Then an invisible alias materialized. "Use the keytool to power the Gateway." The alias threw the keytool to Megabyte. "I'll take care of the Guardian."

He plugged Glitch into the console just as the fifteen microsecond shut-down period ended, and within nanoseconds the Gateway was connected to the Web again.

"You should have deleted me, Bob," said the alias as he pulled Bob over to the edge of the platform. "Good-bye."

The alias grabbed Bob by the belt, and threw him off the Principal Office. The Guardian soared through open air for a nano before gravity exerted its pull and he vanished below the side. At first Megabyte was speechless. The Guardian was finally gone for good, his body tumbling helplessly toward the ground.

The alias turned to its master. "Well, he's out of the way for good now."

"Finally, I'm rid of that infuriating sprite. The CPUs are having less trouble deleting the Web Creatures than I first anticipated. We need reinforcements before we can move on."

"Wait," said the alias. "What's that noise?"

Megabyte listened, and he heard a rumbling sound like a car.

Megabyte and his alias turned around and were only moderately surprised to see Bob and the user rising up in Bob's refitted car.

"I caught a lift," said Bob humorously. "Sorry to disappoint you. Glitch: lockout!"

Glitch responded and encrypted the control terminal, jamming the link function and closing the Gateway again. It disconnected itself from the panel and quickly rejoined its partner.

"Get them!" ordered Megabyte.

Before the alias could attack, Kevin fired his laser, deleting the facsimile. Bob put his car into gear and stepped on the gas, ramming right into Megabyte.

The impact knocked the virus right off his feet, but his claws sank into the hood of the car as it raced away from the Gateway.


	13. CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 12: Driving Mr. Megabyte

"The Web Creatures are putting up a pretty big fight," said Matrix. "We've lost almost half of our forces."

"What about the number of Web Creatures?" asked Dot.

"At least a quarter of them have been erased, but it's not getting any easier. If we don't get help, it's going to be tough."

Dot drew her eyes away from the vidwindow and concentrated on a plan of action. "Just keep holding them off," said Dot. "We've got to give Bob and Sawyer more time."

Another vidwindow opened with one of the CPU captains on the other end.

"Commander Matrix," he said, "you'd better have a look at this."

He then displayed Bob driving his car right into the mist of the Web army with Megabyte hanging onto the hood.

She instantly jerked off her glasses in shock. "What in the Net is he doing?"

"Bob must be trying to occupy Megabyte," said Matrix.

"Captain," she said turning to the second vidwindow, "give Bob as much cover as you can. Matrix, you follow suit."

"Got it." The vidwindows closed.

 _That reckless sprite_ , Dot thought. _I hope he knows what he's doing._

"Dot," said AndrAIa, "Bob's isolated the Gate's functions with an encryption code. I can't get access to it."

"Well, at least Megabyte won't be able to either," Dot said. Then her attention turned back to the battle outside. "We're going to lose a lot of good people before this is over," she said. "There's got to be some way of controlling those things."

There was a moment's pause. There was one possibility, but it was risky.

"I have an idea," said AndrAIa. "It's a long shot, but it may work."

"It can't hurt to try," Dot said. "What's your plan?"

"Call Phong down in the med lab. We need Ray and Mouse."

* * *

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" yelled Sawyer as they raced right into the middle of the battle.

"Not really, no," replied Bob.

Bob proved a better driver than a planner as he swerved and dodged energy blasts and Web Creatures while Megabyte slowly clawed his way toward the driver's seat.

Megabyte mentally summoned one of the closer Web Creatures to his aid. It swooped in from the left, ramming into the side of Bob's car. Bob countered the Web Creature's attack by turning the car back into the creature, ramming into its hard body.

Bob was all too familiar with the strength and endurance of grown Web Creatures and realized that it probably hadn't even felt anything. It would take a substantially more forceful blow to take it out.

Just then, a missile streaked by and hit the Web Creature, destroying it in an explosion of light and heat. Turning to see where it had come from, Bob saw Matrix leading a few CPUs behind them.

Another Web Creature swooped up from below the vehicle and pushed it toward a skyscraper. With a hard right turn, Bob brought the car's bottom within inches of the glass surface of the building, turning it on its side then bringing it back level once they had cleared.

Before one of the creatures could ram the car again, Kevin fired his laser weapon several times. The beams streaked by the sensitive eyes of the Web Creature, causing it to be momentarily blinded.

Throwing the car hard to the left, Bob pushed the creature into a building. It tore right through the wall, crashing through the hard concrete of the skyscraper, and came right through the other side. An energy blast from a CPU took care of the rest.

"How much does it take to kill one of these things?" asked Kevin.

The windshield was abruptly ripped off by a metal claw. Megabyte stood before the two of them with seething rage. He reached down and pulled Bob out of the driver's seat effortlessly. Kevin jumped up and lunged toward Megabyte, but the virus knocked him backward and over the side of the car. He dropped his laser weapon and frantically held onto the passenger door of the car, his feet dangling as the vehicle began to curve out of control.

Megabyte had Bob by the collar. "It is time to shut you down, Bob. Permanently."

 _That's what you think._

"Glitch: camera," Bob commanded quickly. A bright camera flash went off in front of Megabyte. He growled savagely and dropped Bob back into the driver's seat.

Swiftly, he stomped on the breaks as hard as he could and brought his car to a sudden halt. The law of inertia was happy to do its duty, and Megabyte was slung off the hood and into empty space.

"It always pays to buckle up," said Bob as he watched Megabyte plummet to the ground. When the virus hit the ground, he disintegrated into bits. "I don't believe this! It was another alias!"

"You mean he's still not dead?" asked Sawyer.

"He must still be in the Principal Office. We've got to get back there, now." The car lurched as Bob hit the accelerator and made a sharp turn toward the P.O. How much longer was this going to go on?


	14. CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 13: Climax

Mouse was at the Gateway Command's control terminal deciphering the encryption codes Glitch had installed on the system. Ray stood on Baud, hovering in front of the Gateway and ready to deploy his armor and race through. The encryption wasn't difficult for Mouse to break.

"I'm almost ready for ya, Ray," said the hacker. "I just need to find this early shutdown protocol Dot said to erase."

"Not to pressure you, love," said Ray, surveying the continuing battle, "but you'd better hurry. There's a whole horde of those Web Creatures coming right for us."

Mouse glanced in the direction Ray was looking. There were at least a dozen Web Creatures following Bob back toward the Principal Office. Reflexively, Mouse redoubled her efforts and scrolled faster through the lines of code being displayed on the vidwindow. Finally, she isolated the small line of programming and erased it.

"There," she said. The preprogrammed ping locked onto the Web and a portal formed. "You're good to go. Be careful."

"Always, love." He leaned over and planted a quick, soft kiss on her lips. Then he tapped the button on his surfboard, and his Web Armor covered his body. He gave Mouse a wink, then quickly glided through the portal.

 _I only hope AndrAIa's plan works_ , Mouse thought as she deactivated the link function and the portal vanished. She opened a vidwindow to the War Room and saw Dot on the other side. "Alright, Dot, Ray's through."

"Good. Now we just have to wait," said the . The vidwindow closed and Dot turned to AndrAIa. "Do you think he can convince these Web Riders to help us?"

"I hope," replied AndrAIa. "But we don't have many options left."

The War Room door opened and Phong came in.

"Phong," Dot said, "what are you doing up here? I thought you were with Enzo."

"The young one is safe, my child," said Phong. "I came to see how things were progressing."

"AndrAIa suggested that we contact the Web Riders to help us in gaining control over the Web Creatures. We've just sent Ray through the Gateway to the Web to find them."

"I see," said the old sprite. "And what of Bob?"

"We haven't heard from him or Dr. Sawyer yet," said AndrAIa. "Last we saw of them they were leading Megabyte away from the Gateway."

A vidwindow opened, and they turned to see who it was.

"Dot," Bob said, "it was just another alias! He's tricked us again. Megabyte's still in the Principal Office."

Dot heard Bob's voice. She heard what he said, but she wasn't paying attention to his warning, because she was suddenly aware of something going on behind her. She didn't have to look at it to know what it was. Where Phong had been, Megabyte now stood erect and vicious. Everything seemed to slow down. AndrAIa yelled for Dot to move as she extended her trident. Dot dove left and tried to reach for the disruptor in her ankle holster, but Megabyte's energy-sucking tentacles lashed out at both sprites and drained them almost instantly. AndrAIa tried to fight the loss of her energy, but her muscles felt as if they had been weighted down with lead. The trident fell from her hand and at last she collapsed, her body flickering.

Megabyte looked at Bob through the vidwindow and gave him a look of pure hatred. "You wanted a faceoff, Guardian. Come and get one!" He closed the window.

If he had had more power Megabyte would have certainly infected them, but he was still too weak from producing all those aliases. Now the Surfer had gone into the Web to find the Riders. He had to move quickly and directly to the Supercomputer. He could always return to destroy Mainframe later. The Web Creatures would keep everyone occupied until he got through the Gateway. First, though, it was time the Guardian really learned what it meant to love and lose. Megabyte picked Dot up and threw her flickering body over his shoulder. She was unconscious; he had not drained her so much as to cause fragmentation. Her body would adjust, and she would wake soon enough for his purposes.

* * *

 _He's got Dot_ , Bob thought. _He's got Dot_ , _and he's using her as bait._ His grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles white. This couldn't be happening, but it was. He was responsible for Dot's safety and the safety of the entire system. By keeping Megabyte alive Bob had allowed a deadly force to invade the system, and the woman Bob loved was in more danger than before. Now it was final; he had no choice.

 _You have to delete him. You have to stop this madness before any more people get killed._

Glitch beeped and AndrAIa's face appeared on the screen. She looked weak; portions of her body were fading in and out. "Bob..." It was taking her some effort to speak. "He's... he's taken Dot."

"I know, AndrAIa. Just hold on. I'm on my way."

"The portal generator... get to the Gateway... hurry..." Exhausted, AndrAIa once again collapsed to the floor and lost consciousness.

"AndrAIa? AndrAIa!" No answer. Had she fragmented? Bob couldn't tell. The Principal Office was coming up fast. Bob felt a part of himself slowly slip away and now there was only a seething rage running through him.

* * *

Mouse was fast with her katana, but the virus knew all her moves. He easily dodged or blocked all her maneuvers to slice him in half. He finally caught her wrist and twisted the sword out of her hand. She cried out in pain as her wrist popped and her fingers went numb. He knocked her unconscious with a hard backhand to the face. When he felt her body go limp he cast her aside as if she were a rag doll. He could hear Bob's car coming closer. It was time to teach the Guardian his final lesson.

* * *

Bob landed his car on the platform, and he and Kevin quickly jumped out.

"Bob! It's Megabyte!" said Dot.

"No, it's me. Dot. That's Megabyte," said another Dot Matrix.

Kevin couldn't believe his eyes. There were two distinct Dots standing in front of the Gateway. Both looked exactly alike in every detail.

"Oh, boy," said Kevin. "This is wacky. Which one is the real Dot?"

"I'm Dot," said the one on the left.

"No! He's Megabyte. I'm the real Dot," said the other.

Megabyte was torturing Bob. This was exactly what he wanted, for Bob to make a choice and that it be the wrong one.

"This can't be happening," he said. "I don't know which one's the real Dot."

 _I'm Dot!_ her mind screamed. _I'm the real Dot!_ Then she realized how he must have felt at the wedding. She had made a similar choice and had chosen badly. Now Megabyte was tormenting Bob the same way. _Oh_ , _Bob_ , _I'm so sorry. I'm so_ , _so sorry. Please forgive me. Please. I know how you feel_ , _and I'm so sorry for both of us._ There were a thousand things she wanted to say, unsaid feelings and cries for forgiveness that she wanted to tell him. Now she may never get the chance to. Slowly he raised Glitch. He targeted one, then the other.

Was he really capable of deleting? Was it in his programming to be a cold-blooded killer like Megabyte? His eyes were narrow and set.

 _I don't know what to do_ , he thought. "Glitch: wide field energy beam." The keytool's circular face morphed and a red laser dot appeared on one of the Dots' chest.

 _Oh_ , _no. He's going to kill me._ "Bob, I'm the real Dot. I'm the one you love!" she cried.

He hesitated for a moment. Then he said, "I know."

He quickly pointed Glitch to the other Dot and mentally commanded Glitch to fire. A pulse of yellow energy was expelled from Glitch's circular face. The blast disrupted Megabyte's camouflage and he morphed back into his true form. The force of the beam paralyzed him and he fell backwards onto the platform.

Megabyte couldn't move. Every limb was numb and immobile. "What have you... done to me?"

"You'll never know how much restraint it took to keep me from erasing you, Megabyte," Bob said, his eyes penetrating those of his nemesis. "I've only paralyzed you. It'll wear off, but not for a while."

"How did you know which was the real Dot?" asked Kevin.

Bob went over to Dot, who was amazed herself. How could he have known she was the real thing and not Megabyte? How could he have seen her genuineness while she had been so blind before? He reached into her pocket and pulled out the pill-sized tracking node he had given to her earlier.

"I had a little help," he said.

Mouse groaned as reality and pain came flooding back to her. Bob and Kevin both went over to her to help, leaving Dot standing over the virus. She just stood there looking down at the helpless virus. Slowly, she knelt down and reached for her disruptor in her ankle holster.

A quick scan showed that Mouse was okay on the whole, but she had a broken wrist.

"How do you feel?" asked Bob.

"Like I've been whipped to within a micron of my code," replied the hacker.

"Just hang on," said Bob. He said into Glitch, "Phong, come in. This is Bob."

The face of the old sprite appeared on Glitch's screen. "Yes, Bob. Where are you?"

"The portal generator. Listen, Mouse is up here. She needs medical attention." In the back, he saw AndrAIa lying on a medical bed. "Is AndrAIa all right?"

"She is recovering. I have restored her to normal energy levels, and she is resting for the time being."

"Phong, we need to call Turbo. We don't have enough manpower to destroy all the Web Spores."

"Wait," said Mouse. "Ray should be coming back with help any nano now."

"Help?" asked Sawyer. "From where?"

Sawyer's question was answered immediately as a bright light flashed in the sky, and a gigantic portal formed over the city. It was coming from the Web.

"He went into the Web to find the Riders," Bob said.

Next they saw several of the Web Riders emerge from the portal. There must have been at least a hundred, and they were all being led by one solitary figure. It was Ray.

The Surfer broke away from the main group and was followed by four of the Riders toward the Principal Office. Ray landed on the platform and disengaged his Web Armor.

"I got that help you asked for," he said.

Following Ray came the four Web Riders riding their own Web Creatures. They began to communicate in their native language, which to Kevin seemed like a modem dialing up.

"What are they saying?" asked Kevin.

"They've agreed to help us," said Bob. He was able to understand what they were talking about. He then stepped forward and began to talk in the same manner. A few moments passed by in conversation between the two parties, then the Web Riders steered toward the battle.

Still under the hypnotic suggestion of their former master, the Web Creatures continued their merciless onslaught of Mainframe's forces. Matrix was still leading the attack, but when the Web Riders arrived on the scene, Bob opened a channel to Matrix's com-link.

"Matrix," he said, "order all units to cease fire."

"Bob?" asked Matrix in astonishment.

"You heard me. Cease fire and return to base. Let the Web Riders handle the rest."

"Whatever you say, Bob," replied Matrix.

As the CPUs began to fall back to the Principal Office, the Web Riders took up positions around the Web army and began to chase down the Web Creatures. It almost looked as if they were lassoing each Web Creature with green energy ropes. At the rate they were gathering up the remaining Web Creatures, it wouldn't be long before everything returned to normal.

"Guardian!" called Megabyte. Bob turned and saw Dot standing over Megabyte with her disruptor aimed at his head. Hot tears were pooling in her eyes, tears she wouldn't let go before she rid the Net of this vile and evil creature.

"Your time has come, Megabyte," she said, her voice quivering. "It's time for you to pay for everything you've done."

Slowly, Bob approached. "Dot," he said softly, "don't do this. Don't delete him."

"Stay away, Bob!" she yelled. "He has to be held accountable. He has to pay!"

"Yes, he has to pay," he said, "but not like this. You're not talking about justice, you're talking about revenge."

"Same difference."

"You're wrong. There is a difference. Dot, we're not like him. We're not cold-blooded killers. I know he has to pay, but this isn't the way to get justice from him."

"He's ruined my life!" she screamed, the tears now running down her anguished face like rivers. "He's ruined everybody's life. Our life! You're just going to let him get away with that?"

Bob was able to get closer to her. Her voice was unsteady; the disruptor in her hand was shaking. In Megabyte's eyes she could see the fear and terror he felt of being deleted, of not living anymore. It was something she had not expected to see. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to end this nightmare and return to her life. At the same time, she understood what Bob was saying. War was one thing, murder was another. It only made her sorrow worse. She wanted to delete Megabyte but didn't want to live with the consequences. And she knew there would be consequences.

She felt a soft hand slowly slide down hers. Like a heavy weight, she dropped the disruptor, then a new wave of tears came flowing down her face. Bob pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. He let her cry into his chest, let her cry all the pain and fear and hurt that she had kept locked away and buried for so long. Things would be different tomorrow. Tomorrow she wouldn't have to feel fear or hatred anymore, and Bob would be there for her.


	15. EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Sitting on the steps of the Principal Office, Kevin Sawyer looked out upon the city of Mainframe. This had by far been the strangest experience of his life. He wondered how he was going to explain this to his colleagues back at Green Hill. His thoughts drifted back to his home in Virginia and his life in the real world. He thought about how different things would be for him now. His mission was over. He had the information he needed, and he could return home any time he liked. Still, it was hard to say good-bye to such an amazing place.

He looked at the retrieval module, then back towards the city. The Web Creatures had all been returned to the Web by the Riders. Megabyte had been placed in suspended animation by a team of Guardian virus specialists from the Supercomputer. If Kevin had to guess, the virus would probably spend the rest of his natural life in a laboratory being poked and prodded and studied. It seemed too light a punishment for a genocidal madman to Kevin, but who was he to judge? Soon he would be going home, and he could get back to his life.

The genie was out of the bottle, now, though. Kevin suspected life in Mainframe would never be the same again if the others decided to reveal his identity to the public. He doubted they would. Although civilization in the Net seemed more civil than in the real world, prejudice against the users would certainly ensue if anyone ever found out that a user had paid a visit. They had agreed to keep Kevin's visit a secret for now. Further contact would have to be established before his true identity could be made public.

He had gained a certain amount of trust from the Mainframers. Hopefully a link between the two worlds could be set up in the future. Kevin smiled at the prospect. What a ride that would be.

He heard footsteps coming up from behind him. He turned and saw Bob and Enzo walking towards him. Enzo sat himself next to Kevin while Bob remained standing.

"Will you be going home soon?" asked Enzo.

"I guess so," replied Kevin. "My mission is over. I can return any time."

"Can't you stay for just a little bit?" asked Enzo pleadingly. "You still haven't tried circuit racing yet."

Kevin chuckled. "I'd like to, Enzo. But I don't think I'd be too welcome."

"You just need to give the others time," Bob said. "AndrAIa and I will vouch for you. Phong I know will, too."

"And me, of course," Enzo said.

"I appreciate that," Kevin said. "I really hope our worlds can be friends. I know there are some things we need to improve on before we can even think about that part, but it's not impossible."

"I agree," Bob replied.

Kevin got up and stretched his limbs. "You know, maybe I will stay for a while longer. Take in the sights, do the tourist thing."

"Alphanumeric!" Enzo said.

"Tell me, are there any good places to eat around here?" asked Kevin. "I haven't eaten for a while and I'm starving."

"Dot's Diner has the fastest food in the system. But the service is kind of snobbish," Bob said.

"Just tell me what kind of food they serve."

"Have you ever had an energy shake?" asked Bob.

Kevin looked at him curiously. "A what?"

* * *

His cell was one among millions, a narrow cryo-tube just big enough to accommodate his large body. A neural inhibitor had been inserted into his spinal column right at the base of his neck. He could still think, but his body was vegetative. Cycle after cycle scientists working for the Guardian Collective would run tests on him. He was a lab rat. Somehow, someday, Megabyte would get free of his cell. He would make the Guardian pay for turning him into a guinea pig. All he needed was time, and he had all the time in the world.


End file.
